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.
Lufthansa and subsequently Star Alliance are close to moving away from their planned Russian partner Air Union, after the five-carrier conglomerate decided to move its Moscow operations primarily to Vnukovo Airport. Industry sources say that if the move is permanent, Lufthansa may soon initiate contacts with other Russian airlines.
Emirates Airline was forced to pull its single Airbus A380 out of service late last week, after engineers detected a yet unspecified “electrical issue” with the aircraft.
Spanish charter airline Futura plans to lay off half of its 1,200 staff and reduce its fleet from 22 to 12 or 13 aircraft. The airline on Monday temporarily suspended operations and is understood to have filed for insolvency. Futura pointed out that it plans to resume flight operations on Tuesday. CEO Roman Pané attributed the financial problems to high fuel costs. Futura has already made drastic cuts to its fleet having operated 38 aircraft as recently as last year. The airline is a former Aer Lingus affiliate.
