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.
Kunming Airlines, a new subsidiary of Shenzhen Airlines, will begin flying from its base in the southern Chinese province Yunnan on Feb. 15, only a month after plans for the carrier were announced. It will begin flying with two Boeing 737-700s and one 737-800, with hopes to connect the province with Southeast Asia as well as Chinese domestic destinations.
Shanghai Airlines is joining the crowd of Chinese carriers seeking capital injections from their state governing bodies, requesting up to 3 billion yuan (US$440 million) in new funding. The company’s prospective merger partner, China Eastern, has been given CNY7 billion (US$1.02 billion) by the government, with more possibly on the way, while China Southern is getting CNY3 billion. Hainan Airlines wants money from its provincial government shareholder as well as subsidies or concessions from municipalities.
China will move deeper into the Airbus production system with the go-ahead for an advanced composites venture to make A350 parts and another factory that will equip outer wings for the Tianjin A320 assembly line. The development and management arrangements for these and other Airbus facilities show how the European manufacturer is engaged in a wary dance with its Chinese partners—greatly building up its presence in the country while minimizing the transfer of know-how.
