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.
Taiwan’s China Airlines rejects a report that it has announced its widely expected entry into the SkyTeam alliance. The island’s Central News Agency reports that the carrier said on Sept. 4 that it had decided to join SkyTeam, but a spokeswoman for China Airlines denies that it made any such statement. Nonetheless, China Airlines’ entry into SkyTeam could be imminent. The mainland’s China Southern and China Eastern have chosen the same alliance. Air China, meanwhile, is a member of the Star Alliance, while Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific is in Oneworld.
Taipei Songshan Airport expects to begin developing a business aviation base around the end of this year when it takes control of a former military hangar. The downtown airport will follow up with a customs, immigration and quarantine facility for users of private aircraft next year while seeking a fixed-base operator to build a business aviation center, says airport Deputy Director Chen Jauyuh.
The C919 is part of a broad Chinese government plan to advance the country’s technological base, with the bonus of reinforcing support for the Communist Party.
