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.
Boeing added seven new aircraft orders to its backlog in the past week -- including five from leasing company CIT - but it also reduced its 737 backlog by four aircraft. The CIT order is for 737-700s, and brings its 737 order total to 10. The company also has five 787 on order. CIT said the latest order helps meet the strong demand it is seeing from its clients for the 737. List price for the five aircraft is about $295 million.
GOL last week reported its first-quarter profit slid by 35%, with the company attributing much of this drop to the wave of cancellations it was forced to make due to air traffic controller labor problems in Brazil. The cancellations "suppressed demand" in the quarter, which led to lower-than-expected yields and load factors, GOL executives said. The airline is expecting strong second-quarter growth thanks to the addition of new aircraft and the absorption of the Varig fleet.
Lawmakers and the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Inspector General last week called on DOT to improve its monitoring and enforcement of airline customer service, although it appears house leaders will hold off from introducing further "passenger bill of rights" legislation - at least for now.
