Delta Air Lines (DAL) <http://stocks.usatoday.com/custom/usatoday-com/html-quote.asp?symb=3DDAL= > on Tuesday slashed pay for most workers, and pilots agreed to contract changes that should prevent a wave of pilot retirements from pushing it into bankruptcy protection. But it may be too late to save the USA's No. 3 airline from bankruptcy court. That Delta is staring over the precipice is shocking to faithful passengers and employees alike. Proudly celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the Atlanta-based airline has prospered for decades with the economic awakening of its home city and the Southeast. But no more.=20 Unlike at United Airlines and US Airways, both already in bankruptcy-court protection, the decline in Delta's financial fortunes has been swift and steep. Delta has lost $5.6 billion since the beginning of 2001, a bigger combined net loss than any other airline except the larger United. Soaring jet fuel prices are sapping cash. Four recent hurricanes in Florida, the source of a quarter of Delta's business, have repeatedly disrupted flights, hurting revenue.=20 The airline is shouldering $21 billion in debt and a labor contract that pays senior pilots as much as $300,000 a year, the richest contract in the industry. The new pilot agreement will prevent staffing shortages and flight cancellations short term, as recent retirees will be allowed to return to the cockpit. And cuts announced Tuesday will trim non-union wages by 10% starting in January. The moves buy only a little time. Delta lost a stunning $2 billion last quarter and has been burning through about $3 million a day in cash.=20 Over the decades, the carrier has blossomed with the Sun Belt. It operates a shuttle in the lucrative Washington-New York-Boston corridor. And Delta, where only the pilots are organized, has the least unionized workforce of the big airlines. "Delta has been a blessed airline," says retired pilot Jim Gray, who flew for Delta 30 years.=20 If Delta files Chapter 11, three of the USA's biggest airlines will be in bankruptcy reorganization at the same time: Delta, No. 2 United and No. 7 US Airways. Together, they represent nearly 40% of the industry's domestic flying capacity. Flight attendant Renee L'Abbe, who has flown for Delta for 18 years, sums up the reaction to Delta's swift reversal in two words: "What happened?"=20 Within Delta, the stress of not knowing what's next is palpable, she says. "We're all concerned about the anxiety level. It affects how people perform." Feeling the pain=20 Passengers are starting to feel Delta's pain, too. Delta's caterer abruptly stopped serving meals one day last week when Delta wouldn't immediately come up with $25 million in cash, Delta said in court papers. Details of the dispute remain unclear, except that the caterer, Gate Gourmet, expressed doubt that Delta was capable of living up to its contract. Gate Gourmet declined comment. In an embarrassing public fight, Delta was forced to go to court and get a temporary restraining order against its vendor. Delta workers scrambled to give passengers meal vouchers so they could buy food at the airport before boarding. First-class passengers were stepping aboard flights juggling plastic foam containers of airport pizza.=20 As Delta struggles to keep passengers happy, executives are frantically pursuing two parallel but very different tracks: getting major contract concessions from the pilots to avoid a Chapter 11 filing and preparing to file in the next few weeks. CEO Jerry Grinstein wants pilots to give up $1 billion a year in pay, benefits and loosened work rules. That's nearly half the annual value of their contract, the company says. The union has offered concessions it says are worth up to $700 million a year.=20 Delta's also trying to reduce its debt by $875 million by exchanging some unsecured securities for secured ones. Even if Delta could wave a wand and get everything it has asked for, it might not be enough. Philip Baggaley, airline analyst for credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's, says Delta would "barely avoid bankruptcy" with proposed concessions from pilots and investors.=20 Veteran airline consultant Jon Ash of Global Aviation Associates in Washington says Delta needs to be in bankruptcy reorganization. The airline needs court protection to clean up its balance sheet, reduce pension liabilities and deal with debt payments and labor contracts it can't afford, he says. "To postpone it makes no sense," Ash says. While labor-management and other problems at United and US Airways began years ago, Delta's slide has been relatively quick. Just two years ago, bankruptcy court wasn't where Delta seemed headed. Post-9/11, many experts considered Delta the best positioned of the big, traditional airlines. It had been spared the loss of people and planes in the terrorist attacks and was not dealing with recent crashes or labor turmoil. It had a strong balance sheet: $7 billion in planes owned free and clear and $3.1 billion in cash and credit lines. Then-CEO Leo Mullin emerged as the strongest voice for beleaguered airlines. As the chief industry spokesman at the White House and on Capitol Hill, he helped persuade Congress to rush airlines a $15 billion bailout. Mounting problems=20 In spring 2002, Delta was generating cash, and its regional-airline subsidiaries, Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, were profitable. Delta's then-CFO Michele Burns, in an interview with USA TODAY, predicted Delta would return to profitability. It didn't happen. Delta's problems were mounting. Just months before the terrorist attacks, Delta had signed a contract with the Air Line Pilots Association making its pilots the industry's highest-paid. In the years leading up to the attacks, Delta spent $1.8 billion to acquire regional carrier Comair in Cincinnati and $700 million for Atlantic Southeast Airlines, serving Atlanta and Dallas. It spent heavily on new regional jets. After the attacks, Delta borrowed heavily to build up cash reserves. As Delta and other traditional carriers cut flights to match lower passenger demand, discount airlines rushed into the vacuum. They entered new cities and slashed fares, forcing Delta to do likewise. On route after route, revenue fell. At the beginning of 2003, the looming war in Iraq began taking a toll on Delta's international flights as nervous passengers stayed home. In spring 2003, problems exploded from within. As Mullin was pressing the pilots union for givebacks and Congress for war relief, the airline disclosed it had paid $17 million in executive bonuses and $25 million for bankruptcy-protected pensions in 2002. Delta lost $1.3 billion that year. Employees and elected officials were outraged. The flap, and Mullin's failure to get concessions from the pilots, led to his decision to retire last year. Grinstein, a longtime Delta director, replaced him as CEO. Grinstein, 72, is a Yale- and Harvard-educated lawyer who once served as chief counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee. He had been CEO of Western Airlines, which Delta acquired in 1986.=20 Grinstein brought a far different style to the job. Mullin, a former banker, often spoke openly and publicly about Delta's problems. By contrast, Grinstein has given no formal media interviews since he took over Jan. 1. Delta declined a request for an interview with a senior executive for this story. That close-to-the-vest style seems to characterize Delta in other ways. Loyal passengers who have hundreds of thousands of frequent-flier miles complain Delta hasn't communicated with them about its future or the security of their miles. Salt Lake City-based Delta passenger Ron Partridge says Delta's customer service has gone downhill in recent months. It's harder than ever to upgrade from coach to business class, he says. As for Delta's financial woes, he knows only what he reads in the newspaper. "I don't feel like they've given me any feedback," says Partridge, 48, a 100,000-mile-per-year Delta "platinum" flier who works for computer security firm Symantec.=20 Reinventing Delta=20 Grinstein has focused on driving home to Delta's pilots the seriousness of its problems. Rather than dealing only with union leaders, Grinstein has attempted to build support for concessions from within the ranks. To do so, he's held meetings directly with pilots at Delta's hubs at Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati and elsewhere. He's also developed a long-range strategy - a "comprehensive, 360-degree plan that reinvents Delta," Grinstein called it - unveiled Sept. 8.=20 It calls for closing Delta's smallest hub, at Dallas; cutting at least 6,000 jobs companywide; adding flights at the other hubs, as well as New York, Boston and Florida; and expanding Song, Delta's new low-fare unit. It also calls for $5 billion in annual cost cuts by 2006. The newly announced 10% pay cut for most Delta workers is generally viewed as a gesture of shared pain essential to persuading the pilots union to make sacrifices.=20 The pilots union said Tuesday that members voted overwhelmingly to approve an agreement that will allow the airline to use qualified retirees to fly planes.=20 Retired pilots under 60, the mandatory retirement age, will be able to continue flying. So many pilots have been retiring early that the company feared staffing shortages. In return, Delta agreed not to terminate the pilots' pension plan until February if it files for bankruptcy protection.=20 People who know Grinstein expect him to give the union a little more time to make contract concessions outside of bankruptcy protection, then march to the courthouse door if he must. "I don't think Jerry postures," says Gray, who leads a retired pilots group and has met Grinstein several times. "I think he's very committed to staying out of bankruptcy. If he cannot, he's ready to file, and will do it." http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2004-09-28-delta-cover_x.htm =20