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.
With AviancaTaca and Copa Airlines scheduled to join Star Alliance next week, the group expects Grupo TAM, the alliance’s Brazilian member, to leave the group. “There have been clear signals that TAM will get out,” Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz told Aviation Week on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association’s annual general meeting this week in Beijing. He notes, however, that TAM has so far not formally declared it will leave.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is seeing “serious downside risks” that could jeopardize its projection of a $3 billion profit for its members this year. “The biggest and most immediate risk is the crisis in the eurozone,” IATA Secretary General Tony Tyler told delegates at the group’s annual general assembly yesterday in Beijing. “If it evolves into a banking crisis, we could face a continent-wide recession–dragging the rest of the world and our profits down.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is revising its corporate governance to reflect demands for greater transparency and a shift in membership representation requested last at the organization’s 2011 annual general meeting (AGM) in Singapore. In this year’s AGM, being held this week in Beijing, IATA reallocated the one seat on the board of governors from North America to a representative of the Asia-Pacific region, and added a new seat to represent Middle East and Africa. The new board now seats 10 members.
