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.
WestJet, which has seen great success from a co-branded credit card through the Royal Bank of Canada, will “roll out some more segmented products to attract more business travelers” later this year, says John MacLeod, VP-revenue management & planning. The airline is sticking to the model that it is better for it to add value and charge more for extras than to cut services and offer bare-bones, low-fare service because of its higher fixed costs due to its tax base, says MacLoud.
American Airlines is “hopeful” that a deal can be soon worked out on feasible slot times for its planned Chicago-Beijing service, says Senior VP-Government Affairs Will Ris. The carrier planned to launch the flight April 26, but postponed it because slots granted by Chinese authorities would not have worked for connections at either end (DAILY, April 27). Talks on the issue are “very active,” and Ris believes American will get slots that are “reasonably okay for us."
Aeromexico, which will soon begin serving Bogota, is talking to various Colombian airlines to supply the necessary feed to the Mexican carrier. One airline of interest is Avianca, however, the Colombian carrier is so focused on choosing an alliance, it is not taking meetings over such a limited partnership at this time, says Aeromexico.
