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.
IATA wants to negotiate more efficient tracks for 75 global air routes this year, but the group is frustrated by how difficult it is to push these route changes through the regulatory process. "I don't understand why every time it has to be a battle" to achieve international route changes, IATA head Giovanni Bisignani said at the Maastricht ATC conference yesterday. He noted that "the technology exists" to improve routings, but "it is a matter of political will."
FAA Chief Operating Officer Russell Chew says he is looking forward to controlling the day-to-day workings of a relatively small airline after spending more than three years overseeing FAA's huge Air Traffic Organization. Chew plans to step down from his FAA position at the end of this month and expects to start his new job as executive VP-operations for Hawaiian in March. Hawaiian is also a big change in scale from American, where Chew worked before coming to FAA in 2003.
The headline item in FAA's fiscal 2008 budget may have been the sizable cut to airport funding and the outline of the reauthorization proposal, but the budget also reveals the agency's continuing drive to trim recurring costs in other areas.
