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.
German low-fare airlines Hapag-Lloyd Express and Germanwings plan to fly from Duesseldorf in the winter, a move that could hurt struggling Duesseldorf-based LTU and Lufthansa subsidiary CityLine. Both Hapag-Llod Express and Germanwings have applied for slots at the slot-constrained airport: Duesseldorf's maximum number of available slots is capped for noise abatement. Both carriers have said they will not reduce services at nearby Cologne/Bonn Airport, which both carriers use as their main base.
Passenger numbers at Vienna Aairport grew strongly in May, with airport operator Flughafen Wien reporting that a total of 1.3 million passengers used the airport, a 24.7% increase from last year. The share of connecting passengers was 34% in May. Traffic improved 20.1% in the first five months of the year.
Lufthansa has raised EUR752 million ($900 million) in a rights offer completed late Wednesday. The proceeds will be used for long-haul route expansion and the planned acquisition of the Airbus A380 and set-up of supporting infrastructure. The subscription rate was 99.82%.
