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.
An Air Berlin Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway after aborting the takeoff run at Dortmund Airport. The aircraft had started its takeoff roll for a scheduled flight to Las Palmas,Canary Islands, from Dortmund’s 6,600-foot runway in snowy conditions. After about 30 seconds and at high speed, takeoff was aborted, and after about 35 seconds reverse thrust was applied. The aircraft nevertheless could not come to a halt on the runway, but got stuck in soft ground just beyond the end of the runway.
Turkish Airlines yesterday placed an order for up to 30 Airbus A320 family aircraft. The airline is adding 14 A321-200s and six A319-100s to its fleet and secured options for a further 10 aircraft that will be specified at a later date. The 20 jets on firm order will be delivered in 2011 and 2012, while the options are for 2013 delivery slots. Turkish Airlines is continuing to rapidly expand its fleet to 126 narrowbodies and 36 long-haul jets by the end of 2012. It has placed orders for 105 new aircraft in recent years.
Barriers to sharing vital aviation safety information may start coming down this year, but the prevailing lack of transparency has allowed deficiencies to fester in the global air transport system for years. The recent focus on pitot tube icing highlights that while various stakeholders were aware of equipment shortcomings, no concerted effort was made to understand what was going on or to remedy the situation.
