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 growth potential in many Asia-Pacific markets offers airlines an opportunity unrivaled in any other global region. However, carriers here are also facing the fact that to tap into the expected bonanza, they must remain financially viable in the short term. This is one of the challenges facing most Asian airlines in 2015—growing sufficiently to ensure they can grab their share of the action without creating capacity oversupply. Market data show that the balance tipped too far toward supply in 2014, and now a readjustment is needed.
Airlines are showing by their orders that they are willing to accept the reengined derivative concept for narrowbodies as well as widebodies. And manufacturers in Asia are edging further into the civil aircraft production field.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the intended prime contractor, may select between the two of them as early as the first quarter of 2015, but the choice will need approval from the defense ministry. The candidate base designs are the Airbus EC155 B1 and the AgustaWestland AW169.
