For 20 years Delta has been the dominant airline at Salt Lake City International Airport.

With Delta set to emerge from bankruptcy today, the airline's ongoing presence is even brighter.

Industry analysts, employees and the public are bullish on the new Delta.

And for Salt Lake City, which represents Delta Air Lines Inc.'s third-largest hub in terms of departures, when including code share partners, the celebration of a successful bankruptcy reorganization is just beginning.

"It's just an extremely positive sign about Delta's strength, their longevity and about the impact they will continue to have not just in Utah but nationally," said Lane Beattie, president and chief executive of the Salt Lake Chamber. "We're just grateful to be one of the key players."

Delta operates 562 daily domestic flights and 186 weekly international flights to Mexico and Canada from the Salt Lake airport, according to Barbara Gann, director of public relations and marketing for the Salt Lake Department of Airports.

When counting Delta-branded aircraft only, Salt Lake City is the airline's second-largest hub, according to John Laughter, vice president of maintenance for Delta.

Had the Delta bankruptcy ended differently, such as with a sell-off of the company's assets or a merger with another airline, Salt Lake City's economy would have taken a negative hit, according to James Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

"Delta's presence is far beyond a typical multiplier effect," Wood said. "If they had gone out of business or merged with somebody else, somebody else would have come in, but we wouldn't have the hub, we wouldn't have the services that we have now. It really distinguishes us from a lot of midsize regional cities. It's been a real boon for economic development."

The airline's insolvency was barely a hiccup to operators at the Salt Lake airport, according to Gann.

"It didn't affect us at all," Gann said. "There was zero impact. During that time they grew this hub. We saw flights increase and a reorganized level of service. We are consistently Delta's second largest hub."

Brad Rich, executive vice president and chief financial officer for SkyWest Inc., said the bankruptcy did not economically hurt the St. George-based airline. SkyWest and its wholly owned subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines operate roughly 250 aircraft on a contract basis for Delta.

"We had contracts with both SkyWest and ASA, and those were affirmed by the bankruptcy court," Rich said. "Indirectly, the bankruptcy certainly affected us. As a partner of Delta it required all of us to refocus and do everything we could to create value into the Delta system. From that standpoint we all made some changes."