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.
Air France-KLM traffic jumped 10.6% in January, with long-haul volumes up more sharply than medium-haul and domestic traffic. The overall load factor improved 3.3 percentage points to 78%. Traffic to the Americas increased 9.6% and to Asia 17.6%, while intra-European and domestic demand rose 8.8%. The slowest growth was reported for the routes to Africa and the Middle East, up 7%. When traffic is split between the two carriers, KLM achieved a 76.7% load factor, up four points, while load factor at Air France stood at 80.4%, up 1.9 points. -JF
EasyJet yesterday reported that its average yields in the December quarter fell only 2%, seen by observers as another sign of stabilizing market conditions in European air traffic. "We have had a sound first quarter with load factor and total revenue per passenger little changed from last year despite carrying 26% more passengers," said easyJet CEO Ray Webster, who also hinted that "to date, the second quarter is performing positively."
Average yields for SAS Group's Scandinavian Airlines unit in December were up for the first time since May 2001, the company's CEO Joergen Lindegaard said Friday. Lindegaard declined, however, to give exact figures. SAS yields were in a near-freefall earlier last year with average fares down by more than 20% in just several months. In November, yields slipped 0.4%.
