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.
An invasion by Asian budget carriers into Australia's lightly protected aviation market looks likely to threaten the excellent profits of incumbents Qantas Airways and Virgin Blue Airlines. Singapore-based Tiger Airways, a pure low-cost airline, is moving on to Australian domestic routes, while Malaysia's AirAsia Long Haul, also super-low-cost, assaults the international sector.
Qantas Airways Ltd. is setting up a flight training business with the aim of turning out 3,000 pilots in the next 10 years - for other carriers, as well as itself, and maybe air forces. "Until now we have managed our pilot training in-house, servicing only Qantas requirements," says Geoff Dixon, CEO of the Australian airline. "With aviation in the Asia/Pacific region experiencing strong and rapid growth, we believe the time is right to think more broadly about future pilot training."
Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise will become BOC Aviation Pte. Ltd. on July 2, changing its name to reflect its sale in December to Bank of China, the world's sixth most valuable bank. Apart from doing away with the abbreviation SALE -- always a source of confusion, since the company's business is leasing aircraft, not selling them -- the move will signal the firm's expansion under its new owner, says CEO Robert Martin.
