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 U.S. Transportation Dept.'s proposal to ease restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. airlines has generated more questions than answers, which means it is too early to tell whether the proposal will be enough to seal a deal in open-skies talks between the European Union and the U.S., industry sources say.
American this week reported a load factor growth of 2.2 points to 77.1%, driven by further capacity cuts in its domestic network. Overall, traffic was up 1.5% on a 1.5% reduction in capacity. Internationally, traffic rose 4.4% in October, while capacity increased 4.7%. Domestic traffic gained just 0.1%, as capacity was cut by 4.6%. Domestic load factor went up 3.7 points to 79.7%, and international loads shrank 0.2% to 72.4%. Cargo volume dropped 2.3%.
Continental yesterday reported a slight drop in load factor for October, and an analyst said the carrier's unit revenue will probably not increase as fast as that at other major carriers because of its strong capacity growth. Consolidated load factor dropped by one point to 77.3%, with mainline load factor down 1.5 points to 77.4%. International mainline load factor accounted for the drop, sinking 4.6 points to 74%. Continental has been growing its international network significantly this year. Domestic mainline loads were up 1.5 points to a record 80.2%.
