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 named Karsten Benz, 47, as its new chief commercial officer (CCO), replacing Andreas Bierwirth. Benz was European head of sales for Lufthansa. Bierwirth, 40, has been the airline’s CCO for the past four years. Austrian picked Jaan Albrecht as its new CEO last year. The airline is in survival mode and has given its unions two weeks to agree to new, much lower, wage contracts. Pilots plan to strike. Parent company Lufthansa is evaluating plans to build a new Austrian on the basis of its regional subsidiary Tyrolean, if no agreement is reached.
Distressed Austrian Airlines seemed to have been rescued for good when Lufthansa bought it in 2009, but three years later and with little restructuring success visible, its days seem numbered.
Common wisdom has it that the larger an airline is, the easier it is to be profitable in an increasingly difficult environment. But as the cases of Iberia, part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), and the much smaller Aer Lingus show, that is not always true.
