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 airline Germania Express expects to make a profit in its first fiscal year and projects EUR133 million (US$162 million) in revenues for the first 12 months. The carrier started operations last June with a fleet of eight Fokker 100s, which since have doubled to 16. Two more aircraft are flying on a wet-lease basis for rival Air Berlin.
Swiss decided not to continue talks to join the oneworld alliance, raising serious doubts about the airline's future strategic options. The airline said the cost of joining the alliance would have outweighed the benefits, adding it has not reached an agreement with British Airways on exchanging proprietary frequent flyer data (DAILY, March 24).
JP Morgan is becoming more pessimistic about Ryanair's short-term earnings performance, and analyst Chris Avery reduced his earnings estimate for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, from flat to a decrease of 22%. "We feel sufficiently uncomfortable with the conflicting messages coming from the company that we are departing from our guidance and cutting our estimates to a level materially below last year's results and current company guidance," Avery wrote in a research note.
