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.
Delta this week reported September load factor growth of 2.6 percentage oints to 73.1%, with traffic rising 8% and capacity up 4.2%. Domestic load factor rose 3.5 points to 71.8%, and domestic traffic was up 7% on a 1.7% capacity hike. International traffic increased 10.9% with a 12.5% capacity rise, and international load factor dropped 1.1 points to 76.9%. Delta's September completion rate rose 1.7 points to 96.4%. System traffic for the year through September grew 8.4%, with a 5.2% capacity rise and a load factor improvement of 2.3 points to 77.3%. -AS
JetBlue saw large traffic and capacity increases in September, although load factor grew only 1.1 percentage points to 77.7%. Traffic was up 30.7% on a 28.9% capacity hike. The carrier said its completion rate was 99.4%, and its on-time rate was 83.6%. For the year through the end of September, JetBlue traffic rose 30.8% on a 25.6% capacity increase, and load factor rose 3.4 points to 86.7%. -AS
The airlines formerly known as America West and US Airways both recorded unit revenue gains of more than 10% during September, which should be an encouraging sign for the newly formed US Airways Group.
