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.
BEIJING — The South Korean parliament has approved limited 2014 funding for the KF-X indigenous fighter subject to conditions that implicitly threaten to kill the program if it goes off the rails. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), meanwhile, is restructuring its internal organization to sharpen its focus on the KF-X and the LCH-LAH helicopter program.
In a move that worsens the plight of airlines suffering unexpectedly weak demand, the Chinese government has limited most of its employees to flying economy class. Air China is likely to suffer the most from the new rules, which are part of President Xi Jinping’s campaign against the relentless efforts of millions of Chinese bureaucrats to divert public funds to their own benefit.
Singapore low-cost carrier Tigerair will sell its struggling Philippine affiliate to competitor Cebu Pacific, and deep cooperation with Cebu Pacific will replace Tigerair’s direct presence in the Philippine market. Tigerair’s retreat follows the growth in the Philippine market of the largest of the franchising low-cost groups, AirAsia, which bought Zest Air last year and rebranded it as AirAsia Zest.
