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.
International passenger traffic is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1% a year through 2011, which is actually slower than the previous four-year period, according to an annual traffic forecast released yesterday by IATA. IATA estimates overall passenger numbers will increase to 2.75 billion in 2011, up 620 million compared with 2006 levels. While growth will slow for international traffic, domestic traffic is expected to rise more quickly than in the years 2002-2006.
American yesterday dismissed the latest contract proposal from its pilots union as unaffordable, signaling the two sides still have a long way to go to reach any kind of agreement. "At first glance it appears that these items would dramatically increase our pilot costs -- making us even more uncompetitive and worsening our labor cost disadvantage," American said in a statement. The Allied Pilots Association presented a new pay proposal this week, claiming it would better match pay to inflation in the CPI.
Boeing says its 2008 revenue will be down by about $3.5 billion next year, mainly due to delays on its 787 program, but the company believes this will not affect profits because of gains in other areas. Original revenue guidance for 2008 was $71 billion-$72 billion, and this was yesterday cut to $67.5 billion-$68.5 billion. But productivity gains "are expected to offset R&D pressure and the 787 delivery shift," so profit forecasts are unchanged, Boeing says.
