Hamburg, Germany | Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson says the airline remains competitively positioned against its global peers, as she prepares to meet investors in the United States where concerns about a slowdown have rocked airline stocks.

Amid a worsening demand environment and weaker government spending, United Airlines said on Monday that it would retire 21 planes ahead of schedule to save costs in the near-term. It still has an order for 660 new aircraft.