Delta warned it would take a pretax accounting charge of $2 to $2.5b after deciding to remove three aircraft types from its fleet amid an unprecedented collapse in air travel. The noncash impairment will be recorded in Q3 results, which are due next month, Delta said in a regulatory filing Friday. The company will retire its Boeing Co. 717-200 jets and remaining 767-300ER planes by December 2025. Before that, by December 2023, Delta will remove its Bombardier Inc. CRJ-200 regional jets. The aircraft retirements are “intended to streamline and modernize Delta’s fleet,” the company said in the filing. With travel demand upended by the coronavirus pandemic, airlines around the world have parked jets and hastened aircraft retirements as they hunker down for an uncertain recovery.<br/>
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A Vietnam Airlines flight from Seoul touched down in Hanoi on Friday, with businesses hoping it would be the start of a wave of commercial flights bringing back trade, and eventually tourism, to the pandemic-hit Southeast Asian economy. Passengers covered from head to toe in chalk-blue protective suits disembarked at Noi Bai International Airport at lunchtime, photos from local media show. Only travellers in approved categories, such as investors and diplomats, were allowed on board the aircraft, but the trip marked the restart of more routine commercial flights into Vietnam for the first time in six months. The Hanoi government has approved flights between Vietnam and six Asian cities -- Guangzhou, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Phnom Penh and Vientiane. Vietnam Airlines, whose first outbound flight in half a year traveled from Hanoi to Tokyo on Saturday, said it planned to restore its routes for all of these six destinations. "This is also an effort to 'overcome difficulties on our own,' aiming to soon restore international routes of [Vietnam Airlines] and other national airlines in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic," Le Duc Anh, a Vietnam Airlines representative, said in a statement announcing the flight from South Korea. Low-cost carrier Vietjet told Nikkei its planes will be linking Vietnam with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan again starting Tuesday.<br/>