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.
BEIJING - South Korea plans to send a spacecraft to the moon with a locally developed two-stage rocket by 2020, joining the Asian space race with Japan, China and India. A South Korean lunar lander will follow in 2025 if the first probe is successful, the Ministry of Science and Technology says. The rocket design will be based on that of the KSLV 1 launcher, itself now in development, with a first stage based on the Russian Angara launcher. The KSLV 2 will be much larger than its predecessor, with a first flight planned for 2017.
South Korean turboprop operator Jeju Air plans to introduce 15 Boeing 737-800s, setting itself up as a competitor to the franchisee budget airline that Tiger Airways hopes to establish in the country. The 737-800s, some of which will be leased, will support international services, says Jeju. Two leased aircraft will arrive in April, with the full fleet to be in service by 2013. Jeju, which now operates four Bombardier Q400s domestically, already describes itself as a budget airline.
Qantas is renewing its drive to cut labor costs, setting up a subsidiary that could bypass union agreements in hiring new cabin staff, potentially from overseas. Such a move would introduce the low-cost staffing arrangements of budget subsidiary Jetstar into the mainline carrier's operation.
