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.
Ryanair is introducing new routes from its Madrid base in November. The airline launches flights to Valencia, Santiago de Compostela, Alicante and Palma (all in Spain), significantly expanding its Spanish network. Ryanair said this week that it is delaying some other routes as the strike at Boeing disrupts the delivery schedule of new Boeing 737s for the low-fare carrier.
Air France-KLM Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta yesterday met with Roberto Colaninno, head of the CAI investment consortium that plans to buy the main flight operations of Alitalia. Spinetta made clear that Air France-KLM is interested in buying a minority stake in the airline as foreseen in the Alitalia rescue plans. Last week, Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber was in Italy to meet with government and union officials. Earlier this week, the last two of eight unions involved approved the CAI bailout plans, which calls for 3,250 layoffs and other concessions.
In spite of a significant increase in revenues and passengers flown, TAP Portugal posted a massive loss for the first eight months of the year. The airline reported a loss of EUR133 million for the period, compared to a profit of EUR24 million a year earlier. TAP’s CEO Fernando Pinto attributed the turn to the high fuel prices that hit the airline at a time when it was trying to rapidly grow into profitability. “Even if oil retreats to unimaginable levels it will be very difficult to recover the loss through August,” Pinto said.
