Leslie Josephs
Leslie Josephs covers the business of commercial aviation, showing how airline operations, regulation and travel demand shape both carrier performance and the passenger experience. She is an airline reporter at CNBC, focusing on air travel and aerospace across digital stories, live programming and dedicated aviation formats. Her beat sits at the intersection of transportation and finance, with coverage that connects frontline events in the skies to corporate decisions, government oversight and long-term industry trends.
Airlines, safety and aviation regulators
Josephs reports closely on airline operations and safety, with regular coverage of how regulators and carriers respond to technical issues and operational strain.
Her work includes stories on Federal Aviation Administration actions, such as software problems affecting Boeing 737 Max jets and what those glitches mean for flight safety, fleets and future oversight. She follows day-to-day airline performance on the ground, documenting episodes like Southwest Airlines grounding aircraft under an “operational emergency” and the impact on cancellations, maintenance staffing and reliability.
Her reporting often brings together airlines, manufacturers and agencies responsible for aviation security and regulation, highlighting how decisions by entities such as the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security filter down to crews and customers. Across this strand of her coverage, the focus is on what happens when the system is stressed, and how industry and regulators try to keep complex operations safe and predictable.
Travel demand, pricing and loyalty
Josephs tracks changes in air travel demand, explaining how shifting passenger behavior affects fares, capacity and airline strategy. In broadcast segments, she breaks down why traditional “offseason” patterns have weakened, outlining how year-round travel, changing work habits and global tourism flows are reshaping the calendar for airlines and travelers.
Her reporting examines the tools carriers use to manage demand and revenue, including loyalty and payment programs such as allowing customers to combine cash and mileage balances when buying tickets, and what that means for marketing, yield and customer retention. She links these consumer-facing changes to the business pressures behind them, drawing lines from travel trends and pricing decisions to capacity planning, fleet deployment and competitive dynamics between major U.S. carriers.
This work gives a detailed picture of how airlines try to fill planes profitably while keeping frequent flyers engaged in increasingly crowded and dynamic markets.
Financial performance and corporate strategy
Josephs covers carriers as businesses, with an emphasis on earnings, balance sheets and strategic choices by airline leadership. Her role on quarterly earnings calls with executives at major airlines, including American Airlines, shows her focus on the financial levers behind the industry, asking about issues such as fuel sourcing, supply constraints and how cost structures are evolving.
She reports on how airlines respond to broader economic conditions, from demand cycles to commodity markets, drawing on earlier experience covering stocks, exchange-traded funds, small business and commodity markets at national financial publications. Her background in transportation and travel reporting at a global business outlet informs coverage that situates individual carrier decisions within competition among U.S. airlines, aircraft manufacturers and related sectors.
Across these stories, the emphasis is on clarifying how strategy, capital spending, labor, and input costs translate into the results investors and employees see each quarter.
Transportation beat and multimedia air travel coverage
Josephs’ current aviation beat builds on a wider transportation and travel portfolio, including previous work as a travel and transportation reporter and earlier reporting on markets and commodities. At CNBC she contributes to specialized aviation programming, such as a videocast devoted to air travel and the business of flying, where she explores topics ranging from turbulence and boarding processes to aircraft size and frequent-flyer status. Her coverage extends across formats, from online articles to video explainers and recurring aviation-focused series, giving sustained attention to U.S. carriers, Boeing and Airbus developments, and the commercial side of air travel.
This continuity on the transportation beat allows her to connect operational incidents, regulatory shifts and customer-facing policies into a coherent narrative about the modern airline industry.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aarian Marshall
Aarian Marshall is a staff writer at WIRED who stands out for covering how cars, software, and policy collide. She writes on transportation systems and cities, from the auto industry to broader mobility systems. Before WIRED, she reported on cities and urban policy for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Her beat runs from electric vehicles, fuel prices, tariffs, and car-buying decisions to autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and software-defined cars. She reports with a systems view, linking policy shifts, technical failures, and urban life to what happens on streets, in repair shops, and at the pump.
Abby Smith
Abby Smith’s most distinctive work combines motorsports coverage with live digital and radio reporting. She is Digital Director at KRDO13 and covers the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, including race updates, weather shifts, breaking developments and ways to follow the action. Her beat also includes automotive news, crime, public safety, politics, city government and community life. Notable work includes coverage of homicide arrests, a major drug bust, a presidential address about the war with Iran, a family’s effort to bring Stephen Hubbard home, a state governor candidate and a city security ordinance. She also reports on fitness, school spirit and station staff. Smith writes in a concise, factual style shaped by investigative documentary experience. She turns live events, official announcements and daily developments into clear coverage across digital and radio platforms.
Adele Peters
Adele Peters covers climate solutions and other structural problems as design and policy questions, focusing on what can work in practice. She is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she reports on energy, transportation, housing, materials, agriculture, corporate sustainability, and social impact. Her stories examine climate technologies, grid resilience, electric vehicles, renewable energy, modular construction, homelessness, affordable housing, compostable materials, regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem restoration. She looks at whether projects can scale, their real-world constraints, and their measurable effects. She interviews political and philanthropic leaders, startup founders, and climate tech entrepreneurs, anchoring stories in what is being built and tested. She has written more than 3,000 stories and contributed to Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century and State of Housing Design 2023.
Adrian Leung
Adrian Leung writes engineering-led coverage of Chinese electric vehicles and performance cars for CarNewsChina. He focuses on new energy vehicles, battery systems, powertrains, electric platforms, high-end domestic brands, and track-ready models, and he explains technical details in plain language for non-specialist readers. His reporting treats new models as hardware and systems stories, with precise figures on range, battery capacity, chassis layout, motor outputs, weight, and acceleration. He also covers the Chinese auto industry’s finances and technology roadmap, including sector profits, vehicle volumes, and solid-state battery timelines. His background in Electrical and Computer Engineering shows in the way he writes about vehicle electronics and battery management.