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.
New Airbus CEO Christian Streiff is under enormous time pressure to finalize plans for the relaunch of the ill-fated Airbus A350 at or before the Farnborough Air Show. Despite the recent management shake-up, the airframer is understood to be preparing to reveal further details within the next two weeks about the aircraft that would compete with Boeing's 777 and 787. The Farnborough Air Show starts July 17.
TUI Group this week reached a pay deal with the pilots of its two German airlines, Hapagfly and Hapag-Lloyd Express (HLX). Under the deal, pilot contracts will be harmonized and pilots will receive pay raises based on equivalent productivity improvements. TUI declined to disclose further details but said the agreement put in place a competitive cost structure. The new agreement is valid until the end of 2008. -JF
Hungarian low-fare airline Wizz Air is launching new routes from Romania, adding 28 weekly frequencies from three Romanian airports. Wizz Air will introduce three weekly flights each from Bucharest to Dortmund, Barcelona, Budapest, London Luton and Rome. Three weekly frequencies are planned for the Arad-Milan route, while Targu Mures gets three weeklies each to Budapest, Barcelona and Rome. All new services will be launched on Jan. 17, except the Targu Mures-Budapest flight, which starts on July 14. -JF
