Delta Air Lines to cut up to 9,000 Jobs

Delta Air Lines Inc., the U.S. third-largest carrier, said Thursday it will cut up to 9,000 jobs, reduce employee pay and make changes to its network to focus more on international flying as it moves swiftly to restructure its costs in bankruptcy.

The changes are part of the airline's effort to achieve an additional $3 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2007. That's on top of $5 billion in annual savings Delta had previously said it wanted to achieve by the end of 2006.

The company's chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, will take a 25 percent pay cut and all other executives will take a 15 percent pay cut.

The job cuts are on top of roughly 24,000 that Delta has said it would shed since 2001, when the terrorist attacks sent the major airlines into a tailspin most of them have never recovered from.

Delta and its subsidiaries listed in regulatory filings 65,300 employees as of June 30, but that figure included recently sold feeder carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Delta on Thursday revised the figure to 52,000 employees.

The new cuts come eight days after Delta filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. No. 4 U.S. carrier Northwest Airlines Corp. filed for Chapter 11 later the same day. On Wednesday, Northwest said it will lay off 1,400 flight attendants by January, reports Forbes.

According to AP, Delta and its subsidiaries listed in regulatory filings 65,300 employees as of June 30, but that figure included recently sold feeder carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Delta on Thursday said it has 52,000 mainline employees. It was not immediately clear how many overall employees Delta has.

The new cuts come eight days after Delta filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. No. 4 U.S. carrier Northwest Airlines Corp. filed for Chapter 11 later the same day. On Wednesday, Northwest said it will lay off 1,400 flight attendants by January.

Delta's Grinstein said the plan announced Thursday is designed to "save Delta in the near term, so that it can compete and win in the long term." He said the effort will protect Delta from the threats posed by its competitors and make the company profitable in just over two years.