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.
Alitalia has moved one step closer to its rescue now that the Cgil union has approved the takeover plan by the Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) consortium. Cgil is Alitalia’s biggest union and represents most of the airline’s ground staff. The agreement with Cgil appears to have become possible after CAI accepted that wages at the new airline will remain unchanged. It has previously demanded a cut of around 20%.
Workers of state-owned Greek airline Olympic Airlines blocked one of the two runways at Athens International Airport Tuesday to protest government plans to privatize the airline. About 500 Olympic staff walked onto the runway and did not leave for two hours. The employees reportedly included pilots, flight attendants, technicians and support staff. Traffic had to be shifted to the airport’s other runway, causing significant delays.
