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.
Maldivian startup Villa Air plans to launch operations with its first two ATR 42-500s in April. The aircraft will be used initially for services from Malé’s international airport to island resorts, including a new airport to be opened in April and owned by the Villa group. The new facility is close to Villa’s Sun Island and Holiday Island resorts, which currently depend on sea plane and boat connections that don’t have night-time departures.
International Airlines Group traffic grew more slowly than capacity in January given the impact of severe winter weather in the period. IAG’s two airlines, British Airways and Iberia, recorded a combined 6.1% increase in demand on 9.5% more capacity. The load factor dropped by 3.4 points to 69.1%. IAG stated, however, that “excluding weather impact, we do not see any material change to trend: our long-haul business remains strong, but the short-haul European market continues to be highly competitive.”
Robert Wall (London), Alon Ben-David (Tel Aviv), Jens Flottau (Frankfurt)
The political turmoil engulfing parts of the Middle East is expected to have longer-term effects on the aerospace industry beyond the disruption in flight activity and run-up in oil prices witnessed in recent days.
