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, which failed to achieve its goal of breaking even in 2011, is kicking off another restructuring program with the intent of returning to profitability in 2012, says the carrier’s new CEO, Jaan Albrecht. Under the new plan, Austrian will phase out its fleet of 11 Boeing 737s—a mix of two -600s, two -700s and seven -800s, according to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN)—as soon as possible, and replace them with seven Airbus A319s and A320s, which will join the 19 Airbus single-aisle aircraft already operated by the carrier.
Hungarian national airline Malev appears to be on the brink of collapse yet again after the country’s government said it has accepted a European Commission (EC) ruling that the carrier has to repay illegal state aid.
Lufthansa is concluding its biofuel test flights this week and will operate a Frankfurt-Washington Dulles transatlantic flight using biofuels on Thursday, Jan. 12. The airline plans to use a Boeing 747-400 for the flight. A total of 40 tons of biosynthetic fuel will be used. Lufthansa has operated 1,187 test flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg using a dedicated Airbus A321 since July 2010. One engine used 50% biofuel, the maximum currently allowed.
