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 International Air Transport Association yesterday boosted its estimate for 2007 airline net profits from $2.5 billion to $3.8 billion, and predicted a further profit improvement in 2008. IATA says the increase in its 2007 global industry estimate is driven by better-than-expected traffic trends and tight capacity control. These factors emerged last year and are now carrying into the first quarter, and will offset rebounding oil prices and a U.S. economic slowdown. The last IATA profit forecast was in December.
British Airways is expecting to carry almost 2 million passengers over the two-week Easter school holiday, which would be a 2.5% increase from the same period last year. This weekend -- extended by bank holidays -- will see the highest Easter traffic, with 645,000 passengers predicted. The peaks will be today and Easter Monday, when BA forecasts it will fly more than 107,000 passengers each day.
Continental yesterday estimated that March storms in the Northeast reduced its revenue by about $10 million, although the storms also helped boost unit revenue by curtailing capacity. Consolidated unit revenue was up 4.5%-5.5% in March, comfortably ahead of most Wall St. predictions. Mainline unit revenue increased by 6.5%-7.5%. Continental believes the storms were responsible for about one percentage point of this increase, as cancellations reduced available seat miles.
