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Delta will take a charge of as much as $3.3b to cover the costs of early retirement and voluntary separation plans for employees, as the carrier scales back operations amid a plunge in travel. The charge will be recorded in the third quarter and most workers will leave Aug. 1, the carrier said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. At least 17,000 employees have signed up for the plans, excluding pilots who have additional days to decide. As much as $600m of the amount will be in cash payments. The Q3 charge could be as low as $2.7b, Delta said. Another 45,000 workers have taken voluntary unpaid leave, helping the carrier to reduce operating expenses last quarter by 53%.<br/>

China Southern has commenced operations of its Comac ARJ21 regional aircraft, operating a domestic flight from its Guangzhou Baiyun hub to Jieyang. The carrier will initially operate the regional jets out of Guangzhou, but will eventually deploy them at its Beijing Daxing hub. It did not state which other routes it will operate the aircraft on. The carrier says that at the onset, the aircraft will play a pivotal role in building up regional air traffic in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. It adds that the aircraft’s future deployment in Beijing Daxing will help build up the carrier’s Guangzhou-Beijing “dual hub strategy”. China Southern has 34 more ARJ21s on order, with all examples to be delivered by 2024. Its ARJ21-700 is configured in an all-economy 90-seat, five abreast configuration.<br/>