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.
Continental saw a smaller decrease in unit revenue in July than it did in June, further evidence that the industry’s demand falloff has bottomed out. The carrier’s consolidated unit revenue was down 16.5%-17.5% year-on-year in July, versus a fall of 19.9% in June. Mainline unit revenue dropped 17.5%-18.5% in July, which was one to two points fewer than the June decline.
Southwest Airlines believes that if FAA sticks to its current deployment plan for RNP/RNAV procedures, the carrier will achieve an adequate return on its equipage investment. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines says it is already achieving ROI on its RNP equipage — the airline estimates it spent $35 million and saved about $8 million last year alone in landings that would otherwise have been diverted to another airport. Alaska has spent about $300,000 per aircraft, with additional training costs.
Due to a press release error, Jim Ullmann’s name was misspelled in the Aug. 4 issue of The DAILY. Ullmann was elected as the National Air Traffic Controllers Association’s regional VP for the Northwest Mountain region.
