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 named Lynne Osmus as the agency’s acting deputy administrator, a position she will presumably hold until the Obama Administration nominates an FAA administrator and deputy administrator. Osmus replaces Ruth Leverenz, who was acting deputy administrator for more than a year before retiring. Osmus has been with FAA since 1979, and an executive since 1990.
United saw a healthy year-on-year load factor gain in December, driven by a significant increase on the domestic side. Consolidated mainline loads rose 1.1 points to 79.9%, with domestic up 3.9 points to 81.6%. In both cases, capacity cuts offset traffic drops. Mainline traffic fell 11.5%, compared with a 12.7% capacity decline. As some other U.S. majors are finding, the drop on transatlantic routes was particularly steep, with load factor down 2.9 points to 79.9%.
IATA says capacity in international markets looks to be down about 3% this summer, based on the schedules that have been published so far. The capacity decrease in domestic markets could be double that amount. However, IATA believes the rate of aircraft being parked may be slowing: there were 94 aircraft taken out of fleets in November, a significant slowdown from the number parked in September and October.
