Adrian is Auckland bureau chief for Aviation Week, based in New Zealand. He covers commercial aviation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Adrian was previously based in Aviation Week’s Washington office for nine years, writing for a range of the group’s publications and covering many aspects of the commercial aviation industry. He has won Australasian and international awards for his aviation writing.
Prior to joining Aviation Week in 2002, Adrian covered aviation industry and policy issues for two other publishing companies in Washington. He has also worked for newspapers in Texas and New Zealand, covering a wide range of topics. Adrian graduated from Auckland University with a degree in history and English in 1992.
Japan Airlines has discovered that a cyberattack may have led to the theft of up to 750,000 customer details from its computer systems. The carrier says that “approximately 110,000 pieces of customer data may have been compromised,” although this number could increase to 750,000 if outbound data were sent in a compressed format. The data pertain to JAL Mileage Bank members.
Hawaiian Airlines has named North American airline industry veteran Sean Menke as its new chief operating officer, effective Oct. 20. Menke has held several high-profile senior roles at various airlines, most notably as president and CEO of Frontier Airlines before the carrier’s acquisition by Republic Airways in 2009. At Republic, Menke also served as a senior executive following the acquisition and then became CEO of Pinnacle Airlines Corp, the parent of Pinnacle, Mesaba and Colgan Air.
Taiwanese low-cost carrier (LCC) V Air plans to begin operations with two international routes by the end of this year, part of the emergin LCC sector in this country. V Air will be the second Taiwan-based LCC, following the first flight of Tigerair Taiwan on Sept. 26. The airlines are both being launched by larger Taiwan carriers, with V Air a subsidiary of TransAsia Airways, and Tigerair Taiwan a joint venture majority owned by China Airlines.
