Karen Walker is Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief and Aviation Week Network Group Air Transport Editor-in-Chief. She joined ATW in 2011 and oversees the editorial content and direction of ATW, Routes and Aviation Week Group air transport content.
Karen serves on the board of directors of the International Aviation Club of Washington and was the IAC’s President in 2017-2018.
Karen has been writing about the aerospace and air transport industries for more than 35 years and is a recognized authority and commenter on the airline industry. She is a regular speaker and moderator at aviation events worldwide and a commentator on radio and TV news programs. In 2019, she was a judge and a presenter for IATA’s inaugural diversity awards.
Based in Washington D.C., she gained her degree in journalism in the U.K. and is a multiple winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerospace journalism awards.
She is the recipient of the Aerospace Media Awards 2021 Aerospace Writer of the Year.
Etihad Airways’ president and CEO James Hogan has numbers at his fingertips that speak of ambition, growth and deliverability. In 2012, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier recorded a $42 million profit, 200% higher than the previous year; revenues increased 17% to $4.8 billion; passenger numbers grew 23% to 10.2 million; and earnings before interest and tax rose 24% to $170 million.
After the Great East Japan earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear power disaster, All Nippon Airways executives were faced with a 20% year-over-year drop on domestic routes. Without any government assistance, ANA swiftly made finely tuned adjustments to its capacity and moved up cost-cutting plans so it could not only adapt to the rapidly changed environment, but also could continue with its international expansion plans, such as launching new Haneda-Frankfurt, Narita-Seattle and Haneda-Beijing routes.
Small jet manufacturers are planning to invest heavily in their platforms and increase the size of current aircraft. Superjet International VP business development John Buckley revealed plans at the ISTAT Americas 2013 conference in Orlando in March to stretch the 100-seat Sukhoi SuperJet to 120-130 seats. “As we move forward, we will be stretching the aircraft to 120-130 seats and begin to have a family of aircraft,” he said.
