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.
Capacity cutbacks by Japan Airlines (JAL) drove international and domestic traffic declines in July, in contrast to the gains recorded by All Nippon Airways in the same month.
Qantas and other carriers must pay millions of dollars in retroactive commissions to travel agents after an Australian court denied a Qantas appeal of an earlier ruling in the agents’ favor. The Australian High Court on Sept. 3 upheld a Federal Court decision faulting airlines for not including fuel surcharges when calculating travel agent commissions on international ticket sales. More than 1,000 agents filed a class action suit in 2006 against Qantas, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
While specific details are sorely lacking in President Obama’s new infrastructure investment proposal, it appears that increased funding of the NextGen program will be a higher priority than in previous stimulus spending efforts.
