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 its unit revenue increase 5.5%-6.5% in December, but a leading analyst believes the first signs of demand weakness are evident in the airline’s latest report.
Mesa last week named Jorn Bates as its new chief operating officer, one of several senior management changes Mesa announced simultaneously. Bates joined Mesa Air Group in January 2007, serving as VP-East Coast operations and then president of Freedom Air. He previously worked at Delta for 15 years in various management roles. Joe Serratelli is also coming to Mesa from Delta. He will be COO for Freedom, after more than 25 years at Delta. Serratelli and Bates will both report to Mesa Air Group COO Michael Lotz.
Brazil’s GOL saw its group-wide load factor increase slightly in December after significant increases in capacity and traffic. Consolidated system traffic rose 55.7% on a 53.8% capacity increase, resulting in load factor lifting 0.9 points to 68.3%. The largest increases were in international operations, where traffic was up 215.7% on a 218.1% capacity hike; however, load factor dropped 0.4 points to 56.2%. Load factors were much healthier on the domestic side, growing 3.5 points to 72.4%. Traffic rose 37.6%, with capacity rising 31.1%.
