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.
SAS Group has sold its highly profitable regional subsidiary Wideroe to a consortium of Norwegian investors. The investors, Torghattan ASA, Fjord1 and Nordland Fylkeskommune, now own an 80% stake in Wideroe, and hold an option to acquire the remaining 20% by 2016. The sale is one of the measures pledged by SAS to a group of banks that helped the carrier avert bankruptcy late last year.
Guy Norris (Los Angeles), Jens Flottau (Frankfurt), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The tempo of new turboprop airliner and engine development is, by its very nature, slower than that of the turbofan-powered jetliner. Although confined to a niche market, turboprops have set such a high benchmark for efficiency since the 1990s that they have made themselves irreplaceable. Added to this, the overall lower volume of production and turnover in regional turboprops have made it tough to close the business case for expensive step-change replacements.
