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.
Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue are offering to boost capacity on certain routes in a last-ditch effort to persuade Australian regulators to approve their joint-venture proposal. At a meeting this week with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the two airlines stressed that their planned partnership on New Zealand-Australia routes will not lead to service reductions. They also outlined additional guarantees that they will increase capacity in the markets that the ACCC is most concerned about.
An Australian court has given travel agents until Nov. 15 to join a class action against Qantas that will likely yield a multimillion-dollar settlement. Last month, the Federal Court of Australia denied Qantas’ application to overturn a lower court judgment in favor of the travel agents, who are seeking retroactive commissions on fuel surcharges paid by passengers (DAILY, Sept. 8). The airline has no further avenue of appeal.
Jetstar says it is in the final stages of preparation for the deployment of Apple iPads across its domestic and international fleets. The carrier trialed the iPads on select domestic routes in June, and plans to bring them to the rest of its fleet later this year. The devices are rented to passengers as IFE systems.
