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 plans to have automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) coverage for Gulf of Mexico oil platforms available by the end of 2009, FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell says. ADS-B has long been regarded as a crucial safety improvement for helicopter operations in the Gulf, which does not have full radar coverage. FAA estimates helicopters fly more than 2 million operations a year to the 5,500 offshore oil platforms.
British Airways and its pilots union are entering conciliation in an attempt to resolve their dispute over hiring pilots for the new OpenSkies subsidiary. The British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) said conciliation is due to start within seven days, although the facilitator has yet to be named. However, the union is not backing away from its threat of labor action.“Should conciliation not progress in a timely and positive fashion, BALPA will be able to serve notice of action,” the pilot group said.
Bombardier last week took a significant step toward finally launching its C-Series program, after its board granted authority to offer formal sales proposals. The actual program launch decision will come sometime this year after Bombardier obtains firm commitments from customers. Prospects for this look decent because the manufacturer included glowing references from some potentially major players. Entry into service is planned in 2013. Bombardier painted the delay in launching the program in a positive light.
