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.
American last week inspected the evacuation slides on 272 MD-80s, after a mechanic reported a special tool had not been used to repack the slides. The inspection was carried out during overnight stops, and no flights were canceled as a result. American decided to replace 11 slides that showed some wear on a particular part, although all deployed correctly when tested. The FAA approved the inspection timeline proposed by American.
Singapore Airlines Group saw its profit sink 43% year-on-year to SGD$337 million (US$224 million) for the December quarter, thanks in large part to weakening demand that the airline warns will continue through this year. Traffic dropped 1.2%, compared to a capacity increase of 2.3%, leading to a load factor decline of 2.8 points to 78.5%. Yield was still up 3.2%, and unit revenue climbed 10.7%. Group operating profit dropped 47.1% to SGD$357 million. The three months through December is Singapore’s third fiscal quarter.
By Robert A. Sturgell After 14 years, the Government Accountability Office has removed FAA’s air traffic modernization efforts from its high-risk list. This represents a real victory for the aviation industry. The GAO is known for being pretty tough with compliments, and I read this one as an endorsement of the FAA’s program management capabilities. The report confirms the FAA has reversed the program management problems from previous decades, and this should boost development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
