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 is identifying possible acquisition targets in the European airline sector, as the company pushes to become the most profitable carrier in the region.
Air Berlin shares fell by as much as 11% yesterday after the airline announced a sharp drop in profitability for 2007. The carrier’s operating profit declined from EUR64.2 million in 2006 to EUR21.5 million (US$33 million), and net profit was down from EUR50.1 million to EUR11 million (US$17 million), while revenues increased from EUR1.58 billion to EUR2.54 billion (US$39.36 billion).
Lufthansa expects its profit to improve further this year, as the airline is aiming at becoming Europe’s most profitable network carrier. The continent’s second-largest airline yesterday said it has reached a net profit of EUR1.4 billion (US$2.2 billion) on sales of EUR22.4 billion (US$34.8 billion), an improvement of 63.1% from last year. The operating margin was 6.9%, above Air France-KLM’s, but still below British Airways.’ Its net profit reached EUR1.6 billion (US$2.49 billion).
