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.
Cambodia has launched a new national airline, replacing one that was forced into bankruptcy in 2001. Vietnam Airlines will hold 49% of the new carrier, Cambodia Angkor Air. The Cambodian government will own the rest. Cambodia Angkor Air is operating two ATR 72 turboprops and is due to receive an Airbus A321 in September.
Japan Airlines has retired its last Boeing 747 Classic, 39 years after introducing the type. The last unit was a 747-300. The carrier introduced its first 747 Classic, a 747-100, in 1970. It still flies 747-400s.
Long-haul, low-cost carrier AirAsia X plans to set up a hub somewhere in the Middle East, seeking the benefits of networked services but breaking the rule that budget airlines should fly only from point to point. New destinations could include Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Morocco. “This will open up completely new markets, and we won’t always have to have the planes based in Kuala Lumpur, which limits us to an eight-hour radius [of AirAsia X’s A330s],” says Chief Executive Officer Azran Osman-Rani.
