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.
Volcanic activity in Russia’s Far East is forcing flight diversions, delays and possibly cancellations. The Sarychev Peak volcano in the Kuril Islands, close to the Japanese island Hokkaido, began belching ash plumes on June 12. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways say some international flights need to be diverted. This is resulting in delays of 30 to 60 minutes. Japan Airlines says the ash has risen 10 km (33,000 ft.). Air Canada says it expects delays or cancellations on flights from Vancouver to Asia.
China Southern Airlines will build a base at Nanning in southern China for services to Southeast Asia, part of an effort to increase its presence in Guangxi province. The provincial government will support this effort, as often happens when Chinese airlines build up local operations. China Southern’s current base in the province, at Guilin, will become a major tourism hub airport, while Nanning becomes an entry point for foreign services.
South Korea will build its second launcher, the KSLV 2, without help from other countries, such as Russia, the main source of technology for the country’s first space rocket. The key challenge is to develop domestic engines, since the country’s first rocket, the KSLV 1, uses Russian engines that South Korean technicians are forbidden from examining closely.
