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.
American again saw healthy rises in domestic and international traffic in September, repeating its recent pattern of large gains in international capacity and only a slight increase in domestic capacity. Despite the improved traffic numbers, the airline said the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have "a significant negative [effect] on American's third-quarter results." Taking both the traffic improvements and the hurricane effects, American said its prior cost and revenue guidance remains unchanged.
The on-time performance of U.S. airlines slipped in August, compared with last year, but was higher than July's on-time arrival rate, the U.S. Transportation Dept. said this week. The on-time rate for the 20 reporting carriers was 75.2% in August, up from 70.9% in July and down from 78.3% in August 2004. The cancellation rate was 2.1%, worse than the 1.6% last August but better than July's 2.2%.
Continental yesterday said it expects to report a "modest profit" for the third quarter, even though September's Hurricane Rita cost the carrier about $25 million. The airline said a "relatively strong performance" in July and August helped offset Rita, which affected Continental's Houston hub much more than the earlier Hurricane Katrina. The carrier still managed to record traffic and load factor gains in September, and passenger unit revenue for the month increased by an impressive 8%-9%.
