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.
A group of major airlines in the U.S. and Europe is stepping up efforts to get rid of export credit guarantees for foreign carriers. The alliance—made up of the U.S. Air Transport Association (ATA) and nine European airlines, including British Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa—is understood to be close to agreeing on the precise language of their demands within the next few days. They plan to raise the issue through negotiations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Air Berlin sold and is now leasing back two Airbus A320s from Macquarie AirFinance. The aircraft were built in 2006 and will be operated by Niki, Air Berlin’s Austrian affiliate.
Former Gulf Air CEO Björn Näf is joining Hong Kong-based business jet operator Metrojet. Näf started his aviation career as a pilot at Swiss regional carrier Crossair, which later turned into Swiss International Air Lines. At Swiss, Näf was executive VP-product and services before moving on to join Gulf Air. In the past year, Näf was adviser to the CEO of LOT Polish Airlines.
