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.
Air New Zealand says it is starting to add capacity back into its schedule in reaction to improving demand. International capacity will increase by 4.9% year-on-year for the November-through-March season, while domestic capacity grows 3.8%. The largest increases will be on the San Francisco, Vancouver and Los Angeles routes, with Japan flights also rising U.K. and China markets will be unchanged.
Air New Zealand has become the first airline to land an Airbus A320 using the most precise required navigation performance (RNP) standard approved by the manufacturer. The flight from Sydney landed at Rotorua International Airport on May 15 using RNP 0.1, despite cloud levels down to 400 feet. Without the RNP approach, the flight would have had to divert to Auckland.
A departure procedure being used by the FAA at John F. Kennedy International Airport could help reduce taxiway congestion elsewhere in the country, according to agency and airline officials. A metering system has been introduced temporarily at JFK to streamline departure operations while one of the airport’s runways is closed for repair. This system assigns takeoff slots to aircraft, and holds some aircraft at gates longer instead of adding to taxiway queues.
