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.
A change of government in Australia’s upcoming general election could mean policy changes on two issues that concern the country’s regional airline industry. The opposition Liberal-National Coalition—which currently is ahead in the polls—is signaling that it would remove a carbon tax and consider reinstating subsidies for rural air service if it prevails in the September elections.
Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti says his airline’s purchase of a majority stake in Tiger Airways Australia will not affect the independence of the two carriers’ operations. There will not be wholesale substitutions of one carrier for the other on established routes, Borghetti said earlier this week at a Macquarie investor conference in Sydney. This means Virgin Australia will not be pulling out of domestic routes or airports so that low-cost carrier Tiger can serve them instead.
Although it has yet to return its Boeing 787s to scheduled service, JAL is already revealing plans to deploy the aircraft to a handful of additional international routes later this year. Beyond the flights JAL had operated with the 787 before the fleet was grounded in January, the carrier says the aircraft will debut on three more routes. These include Tokyo Haneda-San Francisco from Sept. 1, Tokyo Narita-Sydney from Dec. 1, and Narita-Bangkok from Dec. 2. All are currently operated by other aircraft, primarily Boeing 777s.
