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.
Robert Wall (London), Jens Flottau (Frankfurt), Andy Nativi (Genoa)
As EADS focuses on putting in place a new management team next year, it only needs to look to Finmeccanica for a refresher course on how things can go wrong. Despite efforts to address uncertainties before the year is out, both companies have failed to fully clear the decks in 2011, pushing difficult decisions into 2012. The situation at Finmeccanica is particularly critical after ratings company Standard & Poor's (which, like Aviation Week, is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies) downgraded the European company's long-term debt rating.
During the 2008 financial crisis, manufacturers were worried that customers would be unable to pay for aircraft on order. This time, it is suppliers that are causing unease.
Even before the eurozone debt crisis ensued, 2012 was expected to be a difficult year for the global airline industry. But if things spiral out of control in Europe, the sector could be devastated. “The biggest risk facing airline profitability over the next year is the economic turmoil that would result from a failure of governments to resolve the eurozone sovereign debt crisis,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says.
