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.
In a move that worsens the plight of airlines suffering unexpectedly weak demand, the Chinese government has limited most of its employees to flying economy class. Air China is likely to suffer the most from the new rules, which are part of President Xi Jinping’s campaign against the relentless efforts of millions of Chinese bureaucrats to divert public funds to their own benefit.
Singapore low-cost carrier Tigerair will sell its struggling Philippine affiliate to competitor Cebu Pacific, and deep cooperation with Cebu Pacific will replace Tigerair’s direct presence in the Philippine market. Tigerair’s retreat follows the growth in the Philippine market of the largest of the franchising low-cost groups, AirAsia, which bought Zest Air last year and rebranded it as AirAsia Zest.
BEIJING — A Chinese military utility helicopter roughly equivalent to the Sikorsky H-60 made its first flight on Dec. 23, state media report. The helicopter, with the unconfirmed designation Z-20, is a 10-metric-ton (22,000 lb.) aircraft suitable for operation from high-altitude fields, China Central Television says. For almost three decades, China has relied on 24 UH-60 Black Hawks bought in the 1980s for such operations.
