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.
TSA is defending the actions of one of its inspectors who climbed up the outside of American Eagle aircraft parked at Chicago O’Hare Tuesday morning, causing the airline to ground nine aircraft while it checked for damage. American described the inspection as “unorthodox” and “unfortunate,” but TSA said it “encourages its inspectors to look for and exploit vulnerabilities of this type.” Eagle delayed 40 flights due to the checks.
Continental plans to furlough 140-180 pilots in September but will avoid further layoffs due to a high number of employees who accepted voluntary packages. The carrier in June said it wanted to eliminate about 3,000 positions to match its planned September domestic mainline capacity cut of 11%. It offered voluntary leave, retirement, job sharing and other programs.
Cargo carrier ABX says it will issue layoff warning notices to about 200 employees next week, and they will be leaving the company within 60 days. The reduction results from DHL’s decision to reduce its DC-9 requirement by 23 aircraft this year. DHL will continue with the DC-9 reductions until all are parked sometime in 2009, according to ABX. More layoff notices will be needed as further DC-9 cuts occur, ABX said.
