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.
Japan Airlines plans to re-enter the stockmarket as early as September with an initial offering of shares, according to wire reports. Citing unidentified sources, the reports say JAL intends to raise between ¥500 billion and ¥1 trillion ($6.5 billion-$13 billion) from the share sale. The government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. (ETIC) essentially owns JAL since it stepped in to help restructure the carrier when it entered bankruptcy protection in January 2010.
Tiger Airways Australia is adding more domestic flights to take it to the new limit allowed by Australian regulators, and the carrier wants to raise its flight cap further. Tiger is also “scoping out locations” for a second operating base, a spokeswoman says. Before its grounding, Tiger had its main base at Melbourne Airport, a second at Adelaide, a “virtual” base at Sydney, and a base at Melbourne’s secondary Avalon airport.
Qantas says the Airbus A380 that was badly damaged following an uncontained engine failure in November 2010, VH-OQA, is finally due to return to service in March. Repair work on the A380 “is progressing well,” a Qantas spokesman tells Aviation Week. Repairs began in May 2011 and are expected to cost AU$135 million ($139.75 million). In early 2011, Qantas said the aircraft would fly again by the end of that year. However, for the past six months, the airline has signaled that a return to service early this year was more likely.
