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.
The Air Transport Association is throwing its support behind new legislation promoting coal-to-liquid fuel technology. Although the bill does not directly reference aviation uses of coal-to-liquid, ATA President James May believes this technology has promise for the airline industry. The legislation was introduced by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.). May told The DAILY that "there is not a lot out there" in terms of alternatives to traditional aircraft fuels, and coal-to-liquid "is certainly worth investigating."
Three U.S. airlines -- Southwest, American and Delta -- recently decided to make major investments to retrofit their aircraft, so they can fly the very precise approach paths enabled by required navigation performance (RNP). The biggest of these investments will likely be made by Southwest, which has decided to upgrade its entire fleet of Boeing 737s to be RNP-capable. The airline's 272 737-700s are already equipped for RNP, and the retrofit would bring the remaining 219 aircraft up to the same standard.
US Airways Group said its consolidated unit revenue dropped in April and warned that this trend could continue for the rest of this quarter. "As we've seen from other airlines, the passenger [unit revenue] environment has weakened from the rapid growth rate seen in 2006 leading to more difficult year-over-year comparisons, particularly in the second quarter," said US Airways President Scott Kirby. The timing of the Easter holiday also hurt April revenue performance, he said.
