He started his journalism career in 1992 as a freelance writer for Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest daily national newspaper and soon specialised in air transport. Jens joined Aviation Week and Aviation Daily in 2000 as one of the European correspondents. Later his role was expanded to cover international air transport. In 2013 he was named Managing Editor Commercial.
Jens frequently appears on radio and TV to comment on industry matters. In 2003, he received the Hugo Junkers Award of the German aviation press for his coverage of Fairchild Dornier’s bankruptcy. He was named the country’s top travel and air transport writer by the Travel Industry Club three times. Jens graduated from the Munich School of Journalism.
If stock market fluctuations are considered to be good indicators, the next big airline industry disaster is just around the corner. Because of the outbreak of avian influenza in China, airline stocks started to plunge at the start of the month. That country's carriers were hit particularly hard; some share prices were down by as much as 15%. Even European airlines experienced significant drops. And the situation escalated further when EasyJet's stock dropped by 3%, even though it had just reported significantly reduced losses for the seasonally weak first half.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is reducing the number of its regional structures from seven to five by merging its North and Latin American divisions into a single entity based in Miami and basing its Africa and Middle East offices in Amman, Jordan.
