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.
Alaska Airlines this week revealed plans to add frequencies on some of its most popular California routes, although the carrier also said it will cut its Oakland-Orange County flights. Altogether, Alaska will add four new frequencies to its California flights from Seattle, beginning April 27, and another in June. The Oakland-Orange County route that will be dropped currently has five daily flights, using a mix of Boeing 737s. This capacity will be used for the new flights.
Continental surprised many analysts by recording a pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter, saying demand still appears strong despite predictions of an economic slowdown. The airline yesterday reported a first-quarter, pre-tax profit of $71 million, compared to a loss of $26 million in the same 2006 period. This represents Continental’s first fourth-quarter pre-tax profit since 2003 and its largest operating profit for the quarter in the past seven years. For the full year, the pre-tax profit of $566 million was a 53% improvement from the year before.
Wall Street analysts are skeptical about American’s lack of urgency in cutting capacity more sharply due to the slowing U.S. economy, but the carrier notes it is not yet seeing travel demand falling away.
