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.
Jens Flottau (Seville, Spain), Robert Wall (Seville, Spain)
Airbus is confident it has now found a way to manage the long-planned production ramp-up of its flagship A380 program. The A380’s production schedule is lagging considerably behind original plans. According to the initial schedule, Airbus should be producing 45 A380s this year, but the latest plans call for only around 20 aircraft. Last year, more than 30 aircraft were initially planned, but at the beginning of the year Airbus predicted it would be able to handle just 18. In fact, it delivered 10.
Airbus expects about 250-300 orders in 2010, as airlines continue to battle with the effects of the global economic downturn. The manufacturer, like Boeing, expects demand to recover no earlier than 2012 with airline growth having returned in 2011, according to Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy.
Lufthansa carried 55.6 million passengers last year, 2.6% fewer than a year ago. The airline reduced capacity by 1.3%, revenue passenger kilometers were down by 2.4%. That led to a load factor of 77.7%, 0.9 points below the 2008 level. The airline said that all traffic regions except the Middle East and Africa suffered. Demand for cargo dropped by 10.5%.
