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.
Though the plan was risky, Alitalia had hoped to stabilize the Italian air transport sector through a merger with Air One and the takeover of smaller carriers. While the Air One deal has been completed, the second goal has fallen flat. Europe's low-fare carriers will gladly take notice. In addition to Windjet, Blue Panorama—an early Boeing 787 customer—was a target. Earlier this month, talks with Windjet failed and the small, low-fare carrier stopped flying a few days later. Blue Panorama appears to be in financial difficulty as well.
European travel group Thomas Cook named Christoph Debus as its new head of air travel. Debus will be in charge of Thomas Cook Airlines UK and will be heading the group’s airline board together with Ralf Teckentrup, CEO of Thomas Cook’s German airline division Condor. Debus, who previously worked at Condor, resigned as Air Berlin’s chief commercial officer in 2011.
