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.
American Airlines and Japan Airlines plan to launch their transpacific joint venture on April 1, initially covering 10 routes between the two nations. The two carriers received antitrust immunity for the joint venture from Japanese and U.S. authorities by November. Since then they have been working on plans to align their schedules and connecting flights at hub airports, and in some cases co-locating airport operations.
At least 77 people are believed to have died when an Iran Air Boeing 727-200 crashed at 7:45 p.m. Sunday evening (local time) while attempting an emergency landing. Local media reports vary, but more than 30 survived with injuries, reports say. The pilot and copilot did not survive. The cockpit voice recorder and blackbox have been recovered.
Australia’s Virgin Blue Group has signed a strategic alliance with Perth-based regional Skywest Airlines that will boost Virgin’s domestic network and dramatically expand the Skywest fleet. The 10-year deal will see the carriers code share on a broader range of sectors in their respective domestic networks, and will also help Virgin Blue tap into the lucrative mining charter flight market. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2010 agreeing to cooperate more closely. They already code share on a limited number of routes.
