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.
Incomplete assemblies and flight control software issues have driven Boeing to accept at least a three-month delay in the first flight of the 787, but the company insists it can still make an on-time delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airways. "We have added risk, for sure, but the plan we are working supports first delivery in May of 2008," says Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO and President Scott Carson.
The Israel Airports Authority is upgrading technology and improving procedures at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport to help reduce the ATC limitations imposed by severely constrained airspace. The IAA - which is responsible for ATC in Israel - is working particularly on improving the only one of the airport's three runway approaches that does not have an instrument landing system (ILS). The ILS issue has been one of the factors in a high-profile debate about a series of approach conflicts at TLV, Israel's major airport (DAILY, August 30).
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey yesterday said delays are up 19% so far this summer, but she noted that two ATM programs are helping prevent delays from climbing even higher. In the past two months, the agency has "made some nice headway in chipping away" at delays, Blakey said during a news briefing at the FAA Command Center. A new ATM tool called adaptive compression -- introduced in March -- is helping find open slots during air traffic management programs.
