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.
Possible investors in Austrian Airlines have until the end of next week to submit non-binding offers to buy the 43% state-owned stake in the carrier. Five airlines have requested Austrian’s sale prospectus from investment bank Merrill Lynch, which is handling the transaction. Three of them—Lufthansa, S7 Airlines and Turkish Airlines—have expressed their interest publicly, too. The other two have unofficially been identified as Air France-KLM and Air China.
Lufthansa said yesterday it is in “constructive negotiations” with the shareholders of Brussels Airlines to buy the Belgian airline in a two-step approach. Should final negotiations and due diligence be successful in the next few weeks, Europe’s second- largest airline will buy a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines for EUR65 million. Two years later, Lufthansa can buy the remaining 55% for a price that depends on the development of Brussels Airlines’ value, a Lufthansa statement makes clear.
