Delta Air Lines has postponed its “media day” that had been planned to take place this week in New York City. The move is the latest fallout from a month of bad press that’s hit the US airline industry since an April 9 passenger-dragging incident on a United Express flight made headlines around the globe. Delta communications chief Ned Walker said: “With the recent focus by Congress on airline customer service issues that have gone viral on social media, we decided that the timing is not right to showcase Delta’s product innovations and global strategy”. Prior to the wave of bad airline news that began in April, Delta was expected to focus on items like planned cabin upgrades and new airplanes due to begin arriving at the carrier in the coming years. <br/>
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Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico have officially launched their antitrust immunised transborder joint venture. Unlike previous transnational, antitrust immunised JVs that Delta and other US carriers have entered into, the Delta-Aeromexico tie-up has not been set up for long-haul transoceanic flights. Rather, the two carriers will collaborate on sales and marketing initiatives —as well as investing in and co-locating airport facilities—for high-frequency transborder flying. Delta currently is engaged in a transatlantic antitrust immunised JV with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. It also has a transatlantic JV with Virgin Atlantic, in which it has a 49% ownership stake. In March Delta signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean Air to form an antitrust immunised transpacific joint venture. <br/>
China Eastern Airlines, which is the launch customer for the Chinese-produced 150-seat C919, will operate the aircraft on its Shanghai-Beijing route. The C919, produced by COMAC, launched its inaugural flight May 5. China Eastern chairman Liu Shaoyong said the carrier has maintained close contact and cooperation with COMAC on C919 research and development, including operations and MRO. “The global commercial aircraft market has huge potential and China is a big market itself, so a safe, economic, comfortable and environment-friendly aircraft will be popular. Thus, I believe the C919 will definitely become a star aircraft,” Liu said. COMAC is also set to launch a JV with Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. to design and develop a 281-seat widebody aircraft, dubbed the C929. <br/>