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.
On-time performance and cancellations for U.S. airlines were both significantly worse in July compared with the previous year -- consistent with flight delay predictions for this summer -- although the numbers improved from June. The overall on-time rate declined nearly four percentage points to 69.8%, compared with last July, but rose by 1.7 points from June 2007, according to U.S. Transportation Dept. statistics. The cancellation rate for July was 2.1% of the domestic schedule, compared with 1.7% last July and 2.7% in the previous month.
FAA yesterday gave its final stamp of approval to the massive New York airspace redesign project, confirming -- as expected -- an alternative that should significantly ease traffic flow into and out of New York and Philadelphia airports.
Brazilian carrier TAM is cutting back its plans to expand its fleet of Airbus A320-family aircraft, the carrier said yesterday. TAM had previously planned to boost its Airbus narrowbody fleet by 16 aircraft next year, to a total of 103 aircraft. However, a new version of the company's fleet plan has 98 Airbus narrowbodies. The annual totals for the subsequent three years have also been reduced by five aircraft, to 101 in 2009, 107 in 2010 and 110 in 2011.
