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 Thai government will inject 10 billion baht (US$310 million) into Thai Airways as part of a recapitalization program that will help pay for new aircraft. Thai also received permission from the government, its dominant shareholder, to acquire seven Airbus A330s and eight “350-seat” aircraft — possibly Boeing 777-300ERs — as part of a plan to introduce 24 aircraft between 2010 and 2014. Indian carrier Jet Airways said March 30 that it would lease three Boeing 777-300ERs to Thai for three years, effective immediately.
Australia’s Virgin Blue Group is signaling its determination to fend off competitors Qantas and Tiger by adding 25 options and 30 purchase rights to an order for 50 Boeing 737s. The company also made good its plan, stated last year, to buy aircraft amid the downturn and thereby secure favorable pricing. It ordered aircraft in the previous downturn, in 2001, and says “net pricing” in the latest deal is better now.
BEIJING—GAMECO plans a major expansion of its business, spreading out from its Guangzhou base in southern China to provide line and heavy maintenance elsewhere in the country. The company is meanwhile achieving notable improvements in efficiency with a reorganization of work practices and plant layout.
