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.
FAA said it will refocus its NextGen efforts to better align with the mid-term priorities identified by a sweeping review last year. In a detailed response, the agency generally concurred with the recommendations outlined by the government-industry NextGen task force in September. Administrator Randy Babbitt said the task force findings will be incorporated into the latest NextGen implementation plan, which will be released in early March. “I believe the FAA’s dedication to NextGen is evident” in the response to the task force, Babbitt said.
After three years of negotiations, engine manufacturer CFM International and Chinese flag carrier Air China have formed a joint venture to repair and overhaul CFM56 engines in China. Air China will own 60% of the venture, and CFMI 40%. They will take over the facilities of Sichuan Snecma Aero-Engine Maintenance in Chengdu, a business nurtured by Snecma over the years. Snecma is a joint owner with GE in CFM International.
American reported a slight traffic gain in January despite another significant capacity cut. Mainline traffic was up 0.4% year-on-year, compared to a capacity decline of 2.7%. This resulted in load factor increasing 2.4 percentage points to 76.2%. Mainline domestic traffic rose 0.5% on a 0.7% capacity cut, with load factor up 0.9 points to 75.5%.
