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.
U.S. airline shares followed the rest of the market downward yesterday, and despite action by the Federal Reserve to cut its funds rate by 0.75 points, major airline stocks still ended the day with significant losses. After a day of wide fluctuations, most carriers’ shares were down by at least 2%, some as much as 9%. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down by just over 1%.
Qantas and Continental last week said Boeing’s 787 delay will cause some disruption to their expansion strategies, and they are both developing contingency plans to cover for the later entry of 787s to their fleets. Continental said it is apparent it will not be receiving its first 787 in March of 2009 as scheduled, and it does not know when the new delivery date is. The carrier was expecting three 787s to be delivered in 2009. Boeing last week admitted it will have to delay 787 deliveries due to production headaches (DAILY, Jan.17).
American Airlines’ first quarterly loss since early 2006 could signal that the remarkable financial recovery of the U.S. major carriers is running out of gas. More bad news could be around the corner—while demand for air travel is holding up for now, analysts believe the U.S. economic slowdown must eventually hurt airline bookings.
