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.
The Star Alliance is "in final negotiations" with Air China about joining the group, Lufthansa's head of alliances and strategy, Carsten Spohr, told journalists in Frankfurt. Spohr expects an agreement to be reached no later than next year. He pointed out that Air China has concluded bilateral code-sharing agreements with five Star carriers in the past six months and has since not concluded any deals with non-Star airlines. Spohr also confirmed talks with Shanghai Airlines. -JF
Thomas Cook AG, Germany's struggling tourism giant half-owned by Lufthansa, is considering entering the low-fare airline market, according to German press reports. Part of the 35-aircraft fleet of "Thomas Cook 'powered by Condor'" will be rededicated to a low-fare operation, the reports said.
German charter and low-fare airline Air Berlin will drop its daily services from Dortmund to London Stansted and Zurich. "Those two routes aren't yet even breakeven, and now that there's increased competition, we saw no reason to keep flying them," a spokesman for the company said. Easyjet will launch its second German base in Dortmund this year and start flying eight routes from the airport, including flights to Budapest and Prague on Sept. 16. Air Berlin is also reducing its twice-daily service from Munster/Osnabrueck to Vienna to a daily operation. -JF
