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.
Qantas and other carriers must pay millions of dollars in retroactive commissions to travel agents after an Australian court denied a Qantas appeal of an earlier ruling in the agents’ favor. The Australian High Court on Sept. 3 upheld a Federal Court decision faulting airlines for not including fuel surcharges when calculating travel agent commissions on international ticket sales. More than 1,000 agents filed a class action suit in 2006 against Qantas, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
While specific details are sorely lacking in President Obama’s new infrastructure investment proposal, it appears that increased funding of the NextGen program will be a higher priority than in previous stimulus spending efforts.
Hawaiian Airlines is accelerating the delivery of one of the Airbus A330-200s the airline has on order. This aircraft will now arrive in the fourth quarter of 2011, instead of in the second quarter of 2013 as scheduled. Hawaiian has taken delivery of two A330s this year and is due to accept another eight through 2014. The next delivery is expected in November.
