Delta passengers flying coach between New York City and California may get a treat rarely seen on US flights since 2010: free meals. The airline is testing the complimentary food on flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are some of the industry’s most competitive and most profitable routes. The Atlanta-based company will decide on a plan after evaluating the results, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. “I think Delta’s just trying to see if that helps distinguish the airline, but also if it justifies in the customer’s mind paying slightly higher fares,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. Delta often tries to command a higher fare than competitors by offering better service, he said. Airlines have been adding back some perks coach passengers used to expect in decades past. Continental Airlines was the last US carrier to serve free meals in the main cabin, stopping six years ago. With fierce competition for lucrative transcontinental and international travelers, Delta and American earlier this year restored complimentary meals in coach on their longest routes to Hawaii. Those carriers already had free meals on long-haul international routes. Delta travelers on short-distance U.S. routes are unlikely to see free meals in coach, Harteveldt said. <br/>
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Vietnam Airlines plans to lease 20 A321neo aircraft to add domestic as well as regional flights after carrying a record number of passengers in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. The Airbus planes, to be delivered starting 2018, will be used for flights within a five-hour radius, including the popular Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City route, CEO Duong Tri Thanh said. Vietnam Air is leasing the planes from a number of companies, including AerCap Holdings NV, he added. “The standard term to lease a new aircraft is 12 years and when you lease you just pay the operating lease monthly,” Thanh said Dec. 6. “You don’t have to borrow money, so it’s an efficient way.” Vietnam Airlines is expanding in a market that the IATA estimates will be among the top five fastest-growing in the next 20 years based on passengers added, as economic growth makes travel affordable for more people. Spurred by the prospects from millions of Vietnamese-Americans, the carrier, which has code-share agreements for some US destinations, also plans to carry out its own flights to the US by late-2018. Vietnam Airlines is “working hard” on getting regulatory approval, Thanh said. The Hanoi-based airline will likely begin flying to West Coast cities such as Los Angeles, he said. The carrier is choosing between Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 for the US route and has yet to decide whether it will be a nonstop flight, he said.<br/>