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.
Airbus is struggling to regain its competitive footing to take on Boeing, with signs of new A380 problems and the failure to negotiate a sale of key industrial facilities in France. A similar deal in Germany had already fallen through. The site sale and A380 recovery program were integral to efforts Airbus spelled out in late 2006 to overcome financial and programmatic problems that had shaken it to the core.
Airbus efforts to unload French production facilities at St. Nazaire and Meaulte have failed. The weak dollar and the global credit crisis have contributed to making the deal with Latecoere fall through, both sides report. Airbus has asked buyers of the facilities being spun off to shoulder most of the dollar currency risk; but the continued fall of the U.S. currency made that increasingly unpalatable.
Austrian Airlines pledged to stick to its current strategy ahead of today’s shareholder meeting in an effort to calm a situation that got out of control.
