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.
Swiss International Air Lines is the first buyer of the Bombardier CSeries, but the aircraft maker indicates that the initial operator has yet to be secured. Swiss will put into service the 30 aircraft its parent company, Lufthansa, last year committed to buying through a letter of interest, the German airline group’s supervisory board decided last week. Swiss will use the first 20 CSeries to replace an equal number of Avro RJ100s on short-haul service in 2014 and 2015. A further 10 aircraft will be phased in starting in 2016.
Robert Wall (Munich), Jens Flottau (Munich), Douglas Barrie (London)
High-level government and industry discussions in the coming weeks will not just help decide the fate of the A400M transport—they could also shape the face of European airlift fleets in the medium term. A series of closely related talks is planned to sort out how to deal with years of delays associated with the A400M, including whether the program should survive. A wholesale termination is possible after Mar. 31, since the aircraft program will have failed to fly by then.
Lufthansa expects to make a significant profit in 2009 in spite of the ongoing economic slump. CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said at the annual press conference that the result will be below the 2008 level, but that Lufthansa should be able to resume growth in revenues and profits if the economy starts to come back later this year.
