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.
Ryanair's traffic in September was up 17%, the airline reported this week. The company carried 2.37 million passengers in the month, leading to an 87% load factor, up from 85% last year. The airline also said 97% of all tickets were booked on its web site, compared with 94% a year ago.
BMI British Midland wants to introduce flights from London Heathrow Airport to Mumbai and Bangalore, after the U.K. got 21 weekly frequencies in recent bilateral air service talks with India. BMI wants to fly daily to Mumbai and six times weekly to Bangalore.
Despite a slight decline in premium traffic, British Airways does not see a change in market conditions. "There's nothing in our outlook that would make us believe this is the beginning of a trend," George Stinnes, head of investor relations, said. Total traffic rose 3.6% in September, but premium demand was down 0.2%. In August, premium demand was up 5% from last year. The overall load factor stood at 72.8%, up 3.8 percentage points from September 2003.
