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.
Taiwan’s China Airlines will use its planned fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs on routes to North America and Europe, fitting the aircraft with a newly designed interior. “Our analysis indicated that the fuel savings from 777 operations will greatly enhance China Airlines long-haul cost structure,” a representative of China Airlines tells Aviation Week. “Also, the increased capability and reliability will improve our overall fleet performance” as the aircraft replace 747-400s on intercontinental routes.
Work on Beijing’s long-planned airport at Daxing will begin this year, with the aim of opening the facility in 2018, starting with an annual capacity of 45 million passengers and 1.5 million tons of freight.
For a glimpse of China's commercial aviation future, take a look at Shenzhen, the mainland's most developed city. The immediate outlook for the metropolis of 10 million, and therefore the more distant future for the rest of the country, is slower commercial aviation growth and less urgent need for new infrastructure.
