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.
Consolidation in the Latin American airline sector is “likely to continue and could see investment by U.S. carriers in their partners in the region,” Roberto Kriete, President of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), said ahead of the opening of the group’s Leaders Forum in Cancun, Mexico. “Delta could buy a Latin American airline, Aeromexico or Gol [Linhas Aereas Inteligentes],” Kriete said. “For us it would only be natural.”
Air Berlin plans to sell even more aircraft before the end of the year to bolster its balance sheet, after the airline was forced to scale back its targets for profit and debt reduction. The company owned only 25 of the 145 aircraft it was operating at the end of the third quarter, and CFO Ulf Huettmeyer says that number may be reduced to 10 or 15.
Latam Airlines Group has made significant progress in its efforts to turn around its Brazilian domestic operation. TAM Airlines, the Brazilian part of the Latam Group, achieved a 19% improvement in unit revenue in the third quarter of 2013 and now appears to have the worst of its crisis behind it. The airline improved its load factor 3.6 percentage points over the same period last year and by more than 14 points compared to the third quarter of 2011. The Brazilian domestic operation makes up about one-third of Latam’s total capacity.
