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.
Vietnam Airlines has won government authorization to buy 10 Airbus A321s. The state-owned airline, already an A321 operator, will also be allowed to join the SkyTeam airline alliance.
Qantas Airways, announcing up to 1,750 job losses, aircraft delivery deferrals and a capacity cut, has finally joined the ranks of airlines losing money amid the global recession. The Australian carrier, which as recently as February still expected to make money in its current financial half-year, says it has deferred delivery of four Airbus A380s and 12 Boeing 737-800s and is negotiating for the delayed arrival of 15 Boeing 787s, among 65 it has ordered. The A380s will be deferred by 10 to 12 months and the 737s by an average of 14 months.
An Emirates Airbus A340-500 only barely managed to get airborne after using the full 3,660 meter (12,000 ft.) length of its runway at Melbourne on March 20, in an incident that came perilously close to disaster. The aircraft’s flying condition at the end of its takeoff run was so marginal that 170 meters (660 ft.) past the end of the runway it hit and destroyed lights standing only 70 cm (26 in.) above the ground, Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper reports.
