Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
The Chinese airline industry is likely to maintain an extraordinary pace of expansion for the rest of this year after posting figures that show it rapidly recovering ground lost in 2008. But, as so often in the Chinese industry, even powerful business growth seems unable to bestow solid financial results on the country’s major airlines, which are yet again reporting figures that, behind a veneer of one-time bonuses, are as weak as usual.
Relatives of the victims of a 2004 crash of a Bombardier CRJ-200 under undertaking landmark litigation against the airframe manufacturer, engine maker General Electric and operator China Eastern. A Chinese court’s acceptance of the case marks the first instance of air crash litigation going to trial in the country. The crash at the Inner Mongolian city Baotou on Nov. 21, 2004, killed 32. The relatives are seeking 123 million yuan (US$18 million) in compensation.
AirAsia has formally terminated a dormant plan to set up an affiliate in Vietnam with shipbuilder Vinashin. The letter of intent between the two has expired, says AirAsia. The deal with Vinashin already looked improbable, since the Vietnamese government effectively blocked the proposal in 2008 by telling Vinashin and other state companies to concentrate on their core activities.
