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.
Swiss International Air Lines' European traffic was down 20% in the third quarter, the company reported. The struggling airline, which announced its membership in the oneworld alliance late last month, cut European capacity 25% in the same period as part of its efforts to achieve a financial turnaround. Load factor stood at 68.6%, up 4.9 percentage points from the comparable 2002 quarter. -JF
Finnair traffic rose 5.5% in September, mainly because of a sharp 50% increase in Asian traffic, the carrier said. Despite the positive development, passenger load factor dropped 1.4 percentage points as Finnair boosted capacity 7.6%. Separately, Finnair's main Northern European rival, SAS, reported a 2% traffic decrease for the month. SAS Group's traffic was up 1.6%. Besides SAS, the group comprises Braathens, Spanair and Wideroe Flyveselskap. -JF
