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.
Austrian Airlines is cutting 150 more administrative position as it eliminates double functions between it and subsidiary Tyrolean. The airline is placing its operations control center in Vienna, while nine departments dealing with operations planning will be based in Innsbruck. Austrian plans to implement the changes next year. It transferred its own flight operations to Tyrolean Airways last summer in an effort to cut costs and after negotiations with flight crew over new collective bargaining agreements failed. Austrian aims to reach breakeven results next year.
Etihad is in negotiations with grounded Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines over becoming a minority shareholder in the airline. Kingfisher confirmed in a notice to the Mumbai stock exchange that it is “in discussion with various investors, including Etihad Airways, for equity investments in the company.” Kingfisher cautions, however, that “no agreement has been reached either with Etihad or any other airline and the matters are merely at a negotiation stage.”
Virgin Atlantic has selected Aer Lingus as the partner airline to operate the short-haul feeder network into London Heathrow Airport. The long-haul carrier will wet-lease Aer Lingus A320s for an initial period of three years. The airline has been allocated 12 daily slot pairs in Heathrow as a remedy for BMI’s acquisition by British Airways earlier this year. Virgin Atlantic plans to operate six daily roundtrips to Edinburgh and three each to Manchester and Aberdeen to cater to the local market as well as being able to feed its Heathrow long-haul network.
