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.
Airservices Australia has won regulatory approval to use a multilateration surveillance system over Tasmania, the first time this technology has been deployed to separate aircraft in Australian airspace. The Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) system, manufactured by Sensis Corp., has received the all-clear by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and is now in operation.
The AirAsia group plans to launch its first service to New Zealand next year, with an AirAsia X flight from its Kuala Lumpur base to Christchurch. The agreement to introduce the Christchurch flight follows a two-year campaign by various city government and business groups and by Christchurch International Airport. A deal was signed by representatives of these groups and the carrier Oct. 29 in Kuala Lumpur.
All Nippon Airways has become the latest international airline to plead guilty to price-fixing charges, and the carrier has agreed to pay a $73 million criminal fine. The carrier admitted “its role in two separate conspiracies to fix prices in the air transportation industry,” the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) said. Including ANA, a total of 19 airlines and 14 executives have been charged in the DOJ’s continuing investigation. So far, more than $1.6 billion in criminal fines has been obtained.
