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.
Despite a significant capacity increase, Lufthansa managed to improve its load factor in December backed by strong growth in demand. Traffic was up 8.5% on 7% more capacity, leading to a 70.6% load factor, which was up a percentage point. The airline continued to benefit particularly from strong demand on its Asian network. Lufthansa expanded Asia capacity 17.6%, but even that was outpaced by a 19.2% demand increase. Traffic within Europe was up 5.6% and 3.2% to the Americas.
The majority shareholders of Amadeus Global Travel Solutions have picked private equity firms Cinven and BC Partners to become investors in the company. Cinven and BC Partners were selected over Carlyle Group and Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC), who also submitted bids and were thought to have joined forces, too (DAILY, Jan. 11).
Swiss shrank its flying operations significantly in 2004, continuing restructuring efforts as traffic decreased by 15% on 17.9% less capacity. The airline's load factor, however, improved 2.5 points to 74.9%. The capacity cuts affected both the long-haul and the European program, with Swiss reducing long-haul capacity by 18.1% and its European offering by 17.4%. The airline has recorded heavy losses since its inception in early 2002 and expects that despite earlier goals it will not make a profit in 2004.
