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.
Singapore Airlines saw its January load factor rise by five percentage points to 79.1%, thanks mainly to capacity cuts the airline has implemented. While overall traffic dropped 1.6%, capacity was down 7.8% year-on-year. The capacity decline was due to a planned reduction in frequencies, the elimination of flights to Amritsar and Vancouver (via Seoul Incheon), as well as the transfer of Hyderabad and Penang flights to SilkAir.
After the U.S. Transportation Dept. made its long-awaited initial ruling on the oneworld antitrust immunity application, attention now shifts to a pending decision by the European Commission. The main questions will be how much it differs from the U.S. government’s ruling and how any differences will be reconciled.
Premium traffic on international routes rose 1.7% year-on-year in December, the first month since May 2008 that has seen a positive growth rate. Economy traffic, which has been in positive territory since September, improved 5% year-on-year in December, according to the International Air Transport Association. Despite its stronger finish to the year, premium traffic was still down 15.8% for full-year 2009. IATA calculated that premium traffic lost about six years of growth during the latest down cycle, while economy traffic lost just over two years.
