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.
The Asia/Pacific region last year became the world’s largest market for air travel, and its lead is expected to widen, according to the International Air Transport Association. Asia/Pacific accounted for 647 million travelers in 2009, surpassing North America’s 638 million. This means the Asia/Pacific market accounts for more than a quarter of all travelers, and its share is forecast to rise to almost one third by 2013, says IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani.
The European Commission yesterday confirmed that it is assessing commitments from American, British Airways and Iberia that are intended to address EC concerns about their proposed transatlantic joint venture. The airline commitments are likely to focus on slot divestiture at London Heathrow airport, or carveouts of certain markets. The EC has sent the commitments “to a number of key market players for comments.”
FAA’s fiscal 2011 budget request signals that the Obama Administration has dropped its plans to introduce aviation user fees, at least for now. The budget proposal, released yesterday, had no reference to funding the aviation system through user fees. This was a notable omission, as the FY2010 budget released last year included footnotes referring to a new user-fee approach. The Transportation Dept. never followed up with a detailed proposal, but the footnotes alone were enough to spark protests from user-fee opponents, such as general aviation groups.
