Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

British Airways has delayed delivery of its first six Airbus A380s by an average of five months and the remaining six by an average of two years, the airline confirmed in a July 3 traffic release. Although it still expects first delivery of the big jets in 2012, under the terms of the new schedule the last airplane would not arrive until 2016.
The airline cited “very challenging” market conditions “with trading at levels well below last year.” Although over the past three months traffic volume and load factors have stabilized, the airline now plans to cut capacity for the current summer period (April to October) by 3.5 percent, compared with a previously planned 2.5 percent, and reduce its number of seat miles this winter by 5 percent, compared with a previously announced 4 percent.
The airline plans to ground its remaining three mainline Boeing 757s next summer 2010 and a further three 747-400s in winter 2010. It expects the modification in its business plan to result in a reduction in capital expenditure from £725 million ($1.185 billion) to £580 million ($950 billion) during the 2009/10 fiscal year, which started in April; it said it projects a similar outlay in 2010/11.
The British Airways announcement has no effect on A380 deliveries this year or in 2010. In May, Airbus announced it had 
<link news>adjusted its delivery schedule for the A380 for this year to reflect a planned cut in production from 18 to 14 airplanes “due to the current economic and aviation crisis and following specific customer requests for deferrals.”

British Airways Defers A380 Deliveries

British Airways has delayed delivery of its first six Airbus A380s by an average of five months and the remaining six by an average of two years, the airli

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