Sean Broderick covers aviation safety, MRO, and the hardware side of the airline business from Aviation Week Network's Washington, D.C. office.
Broderick's aviation career started in 1991, working for Airbus in Toulouse. His industry experience includes four years with an aviation consultancy, where he helped launch a U.S. Part 121 carrier; 12 years with the American Association of Airport Executives, where he served as editor of Airport Magazine; and 20 years in full- and part-time roles with Aviation Week writing primarily about safety and the aftermarket.
Broderick was named the 2020 Aerospace Journalist of the Year by the Aerospace Media Awards. He also shared in a 2020 Neal Award for Best News Coverage with Aviation Week Network colleagues. Broderick and Aviation Week colleague John Croft shared the 2015 Flight Safety International Cecil A. Brownlow Publication Award recognizing "significant contributions by journalists to aviation safety awareness."
He graduated from James Madison University with a B.S. in Communications ('91) and earned an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications ('13) from West Virginia University.
Montreal-based Air Transat is the first airline to complete the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) new safety audit after helping the association develop the soon-to-be-standard enhanced review process. IATA’s Enhanced Operational Safety Audit (E-IOSA) introduces internal auditing that airlines must follow to show compliance with more than 900 standards and recommended practices (Isarps).
The FAA may require thrust reverser inner wall replacements on all Rolls-Royce-powered Boeing 777s to help prevent wall break-ups that have plagued at least 15 aircraft, including a Royal Brunei Airlines 777-200ER near London Heathrow Airport (LHR) last December, U.K. investigators report.
U.S. airlines are taking diligent and creative approaches to boost capacity while protecting high load factors from the threat of overexpanding fleets—a trend that is expected to gain momentum, industry experts say. Upgauging, or swapping smaller aircraft for slightly larger ones, is the most direct capacity boosting approach, and it’s continuing unabated. US Airways recently switched its last Airbus A319 order and five A320 orders to A321s, an Aviation Week analysis of the most recent Airbus orders and deliveries report shows.
