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.
Passenger traffic at European airports grew 5% in January, with the smallest commercial airports once again showing the highest growth rates. Group Four airports -- those with fewer than five million passengers a year -- saw passenger traffic grow by an average of 9.9%, compared with last year, and by 27.4%, compared with January 2004, said Airports Council International-Europe. Of this group, Bournemouth was up 94.1%, Liege 64.4% and Riga 58.5%.
Thales reported a EUR334 million ($398.5 million) net profit for 2005, helped by higher revenues in the aerospace and air systems segments. The annual profit was slightly higher than 2004's total of EUR324 million. Overall revenue was essentially flat at EUR2.3 billion, with U.S. revenue contributing about 11% of the total. The Aerospace division saw revenue increase 9%, benefiting from "a highly favorable environment in avionics." Air Systems revenue grew 7%, helped by air traffic management order increases.
