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.
Robert Wall (London), Jens Flottau (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
The high profile Airbus has given the A380 magnifies any of its problems in the public eye. The mega-transport's latest setback, cracks in a wing component that must be repaired in much of the fleet worldwide, may end up as little more than a footnote, however. Airbus has put in place changes to its A380 wing assembly process to address the occurrence of component cracks as it becomes apparent that most A380s already built require fixes to deal with the issue.
European governments have been notorious for their open or hidden subsidies to support national carriers. But tighter controls imposed by the European Commission, coupled with the effects of the sovereign debt crisis, are taking their toll on the weakest airlines—as witnessed by the recent demise of Spanair and the de facto collapse of Malev.
The demise of struggling carriers can take years—as the history of many of the failed airlines has shown—and all too often their executives are very creative in finding yet another investor who is courageous enough (or is ill-informed about the industry) to extend an ailing enterprise a lifeline. Bankruptcies are therefore rare and spectacular.
