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.
World Air Holdings this week extended the leases on eight aircraft to keep MD-11 and Boeing 757 aircraft in its fleet longer. The company's subsidiary World Airways added five years to the leases of three MD-11 passenger aircraft and three MD-11 freighters. The aircraft are leased from International Lease Finance Corp., and the terms were to expire in 2008 and 2009.
British Airways yesterday reached a deal with the trustees of its major pension plan that will see the company pay off GBP800 million (US$1.5 billion) of the plan's GBP2.1 billion deficit. BA previously proposed a one-off payment of GBP500 million, but it had hinted that this could be raised to win the approval of the trustees. The agreement doesn't totally cure BA's pension headaches -- the one-off payment is conditional on its unions' accepting changes to pension rules, and BA still has considerable work ahead to achieve this.
The U.K. government must establish a timetable to accelerate the development of new runway procedures and the building of a third runway at London Heathrow Airport, says British Airways CEO Willie Walsh.
