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 attempted its longest operational test of a new en route ATC system over the weekend, but a glitch forced it to switch back to the legacy system. Controllers at the Salt Lake City center switched over to the en route automation modernization (ERAM) system at about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 2, and nine hours later an error was detected in the information tag attached to a single Continental flight. Controllers then transitioned back to the host system, according to an FAA spokesman. This resulted in 23 flight delays.
FAA yesterday hailed the success of an industry/government drive to reduce runway incursions, which helped cut serious incursions to record lows. For the 2009 fiscal year ending Sept. 30, there were 12 incursions classified as category A or B. This compares to 67 in 2000, and 25 in fiscal 2008. Moreover, only two of the 2009 incursions involved commercial aircraft, versus nine the previous year and 34 in 2000.
Industry associations are continuing to urge lawmakers — particularly those in the Senate — to pass an FAA reauthorization bill as soon as possible. More than 30 industry groups and unions recently signed a letter to Senators stressing “the importance of passing a comprehensive, multi-year reauthorization.” The FAA’s authorization has been extended seven times over the past two years, and this “highlights how critically overdue this important legislation has become,” the groups said.
