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.
LTU International Airways is re-financing its debt and yesterday prematurely paid back a EUR70 million loan backed by a state of Northrhine-Westfalia guarantee. The airline received a EUR200 million capital injection by its parent Rewe Touristik, and three Deutsche Bank loans are partially backed by the state. The previous loan restricted LTU in its growth because of tight European Commission conditions attached to it. In 2001, LTU was close to shutting down after the failure of shareholder SAir Group but was rescued in a joint state-backed effort.
Air France-KLM has told Airbus that it does not want to take delivery of its first A380s in the fall of 2007, but rather delay the introduction into service by another six months. Air France was initially scheduled to take delivery of the first A380 of 10 ordered in April 2007, but due to the delay in production ramp-up and the certification process, the airline -- like the other launch customers -- incurred a delay of about six months.
Boeing and Airbus could break new order records before year-end, but the absence of airline commitments was also remarkable at last week's Dubai air show, illustrating airline concerns about readiness of proposed technological innovations. One record that could fall is for total order intake for aircraft seating more than 100; that was set in 1989 at 1,631 aircraft. Airbus President/CEO Gustav Humbert sees a slight chance his company and rival Boeing could combine to surpass that number. "This has been a good year for the industry at large," he notes.
