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.
The Virgin Blue Group says it will add another two Airbus A330-200s to its domestic fleet in early 2012, which is expected to aid its strategy of pursuing a greater share of the corporate market. The carrier had already announced in August that it would take delivery of its first two A330-200s in May 2011. These will be used primarily on Sydney-Perth transcontinental routes. The additional two A330s will also be used for flights to Perth, although the carrier is not revealing where they will depart from on the East Coast.
Australian safety regulators cannot find the cause of an oxygen cylinder rupture that caused major damage on a Qantas Boeing 747-400 in 2008, and have determined it is unlikely to happen again.
Qantas has decided to resume flying some Airbus A380s on its London routes, but is still not putting the aircraft back on its longer Los Angeles flights due to concerns over operating the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines at maximum thrust. One of the airline’s A380s is due to begin flying the Sydney-Singapore-London route on Nov. 27, and another is expected to follow soon after on either the Sydney or Melbourne flights to London.
