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.
Gulf Air has decided to shut down four routes in an effort to reduce losses, with services to Athens, Damascus, Kuala Lumpur and Milan scheduled to end in the coming weeks. The company says the four routes were underperforming, with CEO Samer Majali noting that “these closures are pragmatic commercial decisions aimed at focusing services on routes with higher passenger traffic.”
The demise of Hungarian operator Malev will cost the Oneworld alliance just five routes from its combined network, and while the group faces potential capacity reduction at American Airlines and Royal Jordanian Airlines, and the suspension of Kingfisher Airlines’ integration, the pending addition of Air Berlin could greatly improve Oneworld’s European network.
The Oneworld alliance is facing severe headwinds on many fronts: Malev is bankrupt, American Airlines is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Royal Jordanian is instituting serious network cutbacks and Kingfisher Airlines is putting its plans of joining on hold. Now the big hope is that Air Berlin will provide the alliance with the robust European network it needs.
