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.
Ten years ago, airlines just had to be in. If they were not part of one of the three global alliances, they were second class, or their home market was too small and uninteresting to be considered. Alliances gave them the access to markets they needed and, as importantly, to their future merger partners.
Consolidation has led to the formation of the Big Three airline groups in Europe: Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and the International Airlines Group (IAG). But all three are finding that some takeovers simply do not work, and antitrust authorities and economic realities might block further steps.
Lufthansa’s board of directors has approved a €140 million ($183 million) capital increase for money-losing subsidiary Austrian Airlines provided that Austrian’s flight crews agree to further contract concessions by the end of the month. Lufthansa, whose CEO, Christoph Franz, says he expects substantial concessions, has threatened to transfer operations from Austrian to lower-cost regional subsidiary Tyrolean if no deal is reached by the end of March.
