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's massive growth slowed down significantly in May, reflecting a more saturated state of the airline's key markets. Overall passenger traffic was up 2.8% on 3.2% more capacity, causing a 0.3-point drop in load factors to 73.2%. While the airline achieved double-digit growth on its Asian routes throughout most of last year, as it continued to add capacity, traffic to Asia increased 5.1% in May and remained the strongest region, albeit at a slower pace. European demand almost stagnated, up only 0.7%, while business to the Americas was up 2.5%.
Air France-KLM, Europe's largest airline group, recorded a 6.9% increase in traffic for May. In the same period, the company offered 4.9% more capacity. Load factor gained 1.4 percentage points to 77.7%. Demand to the Americas grew strongest at 12.3%, but European traffic also was up 7.5%. Conversely, Air France-KLM saw a 1.3% drop in cargo traffic on 6.6% more capacity. The company said the "figures reflect the weakness of European exports."
Airbus will not launch its A350 program at next week's Paris Air Show, as planned, but slip the start date to September, Airbus parent company EADS said yesterday. As recently as last month, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer John Leahy said the program would be unveiled at the Paris Air Show, with 100 orders announced at the same time (DAILY, May 19). The EADS board now says it has "confirmed its willingness to proceed towards the full industrial launch of the program with its partner BAE Systems by the end of September."
