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.
Southwest Airlines reported continued demand strength in July, with passenger unit revenue increasing by 17%-18%. Traffic was up 3.4% year-on-year for the month, and capacity rose 1.4%. Load factor increased by 1.7 points to 84.9%. For the year through the end of July, traffic rose 2.4%, capacity was down 2.6%, and the airline’s load factor increased 3.8 points to 78.8%.
A new study by the U.S. Transportation Dept. has found that February 2010 had the highest weather-cancellation rate for any month in at least seven years, thanks to the record snowstorms in the eastern U.S. More than 20,000 flights, or 4.2% of the scheduled total, were cancelled in February, according to the DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This was the most since DOT began collecting this data in 2003. The previous record was a 2.8% cancellation rate in February 2007.
