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.
FAA's plans to increase controller hiring appear to be under threat from congressional foot-dragging on fiscal 2007 spending bills. Democratic leaders have proposed extending fiscal 2006 funding levels through the end of the current fiscal year for most non-defense departments. FAA's Air Traffic Organization spelled out some of the consequences in a staff memo last week, including a hiring freeze for administrative positions. FAA will also consider freezing controller and technician hiring after March 31 (DAILY, Dec. 15).
A malfunction of the primary radar at Chicago O'Hare Airport caused major delays Friday, and the controllers union said the outage highlights the need for backup radar at the airport. The primary ASR-9 radar first went down at 3:30 a.m. local time Friday, due to a defective switch, FAA said. The radar was brought back on line at about 9 a.m., but it failed again at 9:35 a.m. Technicians had the radar operating and stable by 11:30 a.m.
An influential new report on fuel efficiency says FAA needs to press ahead with ATM improvements in order to help airlines cut fuel consumption, a finding that echoes earlier calls by the Air Transport Association. The Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC) this week released wide-ranging recommendations aimed at cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The report says airlines could save the equivalent of 400,000 barrels a day by 2030 through improvements such as shorter routings made possible by a satellite-based ATM system.
