Forget cutting back. When it comes to Salt Lake City, Delta Air Lines is beefing up.

Delta announced Wednesday that it plans to add 58 flights here while drastically cutting operations at its Dallas/Fort Worth hub.

At an employee meeting broadcast over the Internet Wednesday morning, Delta chief executive officer Gerald Grinstein outlined the airline's "Transformation Plan," which calls for the elimination of 6,000 to 7,000 jobs over 18 months, de-hubbing Dallas/Fort Worth and ramping up activity at its Salt Lake, Cincinnati and Atlanta hubs. In all, Grinstein said, 51 percent of the company's network will be restructured by Jan. 31, 2005.

Such drastic action is necessary, Grinstein said, if Delta is to avoid bankruptcy and remain competitive in the rapidly changing airline industry.

"To get our customers where they want to go, when they want to go, we will aggressively compete in our key hubs and cities and invest and grow where there is the greatest demand," Grinstein said.

"Difficult decisions had to be made. A commanding market presence is crucial, and we could never have that at Dallas/Fort Worth. The de-hubbing of DFW along with other actions support Delta's strategic objective of retaining and building a stronger competitive pattern of service at Atlanta, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City."

In Salt Lake City, Delta will add 58 flights by February 2005, including 13 added nonstop destinations. Twenty-one of the 58 new flights will be under the Delta banner, with the remaining 37 as Delta Connection flights.

Delta's new nonstop destinations from Salt Lake City will include Austin, El Paso and San Antonio, Texas; New Orleans; Maui, Hawaii; and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

"Never an issue"

Despite analysts' speculations that Salt Lake City was one of the Delta hubs being considered for reductions, some close to the airline say it was never a legitimate possibility.

"I had been thinking that we'd be adding flights for some time," said Summit County-based Delta pilot Ed Thiel. "That part about closing the (Salt Lake) hub was not backed up by facts."

Anthony Black, Delta spokesman, said the closing of the Dallas/Fort Worth hub was "never an issue" of either-or.

"It was never an issue of one or the other," Black said. Rather, he said, the decision to bulk up the Salt Lake hub was one of "strengthening and building up something that was already well-established, while protecting East-West flow, which is important."

James Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, hailed Delta's plan as "very significant" to Utah's economic well-being.