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.
As poor countries develop, air travel expands much faster than incomes. But as people become richer, that gearing ratio tends to fall: Air travel still grows faster than incomes, but not so much faster. And then the economy itself slows, as its game of catch-up takes it closer to the leading edge of advanced countries. For Chinese commercial aviation, that may be just as well. After experiencing the most powerful episode of airline expansion in history, the country is straining to provide infrastructure for the sector.
Challenged in getting FAA endorsement for the Chinese certification of the C919 narrowbody airliner, Comac is raising the possibility of relying instead on the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The Chinese manufacturer is also playing down the immediate prospects for foreign sales of type, emphasizing that the program always aimed at initially supplying the domestic market.
The Russian and Chinese aeronautics industries are firming up plans for a joint widebody that would enter service in about 10 years, probably pitched as an Airbus A330 replacement.
