Karen Walker is Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief and Aviation Week Network Group Air Transport Editor-in-Chief. She joined ATW in 2011 and oversees the editorial content and direction of ATW, Routes and Aviation Week Group air transport content.
Karen serves on the board of directors of the International Aviation Club of Washington and was the IAC’s President in 2017-2018.
Karen has been writing about the aerospace and air transport industries for more than 35 years and is a recognized authority and commenter on the airline industry. She is a regular speaker and moderator at aviation events worldwide and a commentator on radio and TV news programs. In 2019, she was a judge and a presenter for IATA’s inaugural diversity awards.
Based in Washington D.C., she gained her degree in journalism in the U.K. and is a multiple winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerospace journalism awards.
She is the recipient of the Aerospace Media Awards 2021 Aerospace Writer of the Year.
Virgin America (VX) has reported a first-quarter operating loss of $49 million, a 65% worsening compared to the $29.5 million operating loss for the same period last year.
The $600 million, 116-acre A320 family assembly and delivery center that Airbus will build in the US will be almost identical to similar facilities in France and Germany.
If the global airline industry could speak with a single voice on issues that most restrict its ability to operate efficiently, then it would likely unite around the need for more efficient air traffic management systems, less regulatory interference in business practices, and—most of all—fewer taxes. Identifying the common issues that are everyday hurdles against profitability regardless of the economic, oil price and natural disaster crises that must also be absorbed is the easy part. Getting the message through to lawmakers is another matter.
