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 surpassed easyJet to again become Europe's biggest low-fare airline in 2003. In mid-2002, easyJet took the top spot after its takeover of Go Fly, but since then has grown more slowly than its rival. Last year, Ryanair carried 21.4 million passengers, compared with 21.1 million flying easyJet. EasyJet traffic increased 16% in December 2003. The airline carried 1.67 million passengers in the month, and load factor improved by three points to 80%. The airline expects to grow by about 20% in 2004, compared with Ryanair's 50%.
Airbus parent EADS expects earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to rise 20% this year, co-CEOs Rainer Hertrich and Philippe Camus said. EADS noted Airbus will have to deal with a slight decline in deliveries, and this, along with continuing A380 development, will dampen Airbus's 2004 EBIT.
KLM managed to improve its load factor by three percentage points to 77.6% in December, as the airline reduced capacity by 11%. Demand fell 7% in the period, still one of the worst performances among European airlines for the month. North Atlantic traffic was down 16% and demand to Asia was down 7%. Europe was relatively stable at 1%. KLM and Air France are awaiting European Commission approval for their tie-up into Air France-KLM, potentially the largest airline group in the world (DAILY, Oct. 1, 17, 2003). -JF
