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 U.S. Transportation Dept. says it will hold an airline scheduling conference for New York Kennedy Airport Oct. 23-24, in an effort to cap peak-time flights at the airport. The announcement has been expected for the past few weeks, after DOT Secretary Mary Peters committed on Sept. 27 to holding the scheduling conference. Also, FAA signaled its intentions earlier in September by calling for airlines to submit next summer's schedules to the agency by Oct. 11.
JAL International is offering an early retirement package to flight attendants as part of a wider effort to trim personnel costs. The carrier's offer is available to attendants who have more than 15 years' seniority, and are over 50 years old if they are non-management and over 54 if they are in management positions. This means about 900 staff would be eligible, with a retirement date of March 31, 2008.
The International Air Transport Association has issued standards for the use of cell phones and PDAs to display airline boarding passes, a service that a few airlines are already offering. Boarding passes sent to passengers' mobile devices could be displayed and scanned at the airport, using bar codes. Soon IATA will develop standardized processes and guidelines to aid the global introduction of check-in via mobile device. IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani described this as "an important step in getting rid of paper" from the ticketing process.
