Delta's board to weigh offer

Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Gerald Grinstein said the bankrupt carrier's board will formally consider US Airways Group Inc.'s $8.53 billion takeover bid.

"Soon we'll share" the airline's analysis of the hostile offer with Delta's board and official creditors committee, Grinstein told Delta's 51,000 employees in a letter Tuesday.

The review of US Airways' bid "in the next few weeks and days" also will include an examination of Atlanta-based Delta's efforts to

cut costs and generate new revenue since filing for Chapter 11 in September 2005, Grinstein wrote.

Delta, which operates a hub at Salt Lake City International Airport, is pursuing its strategy to emerge from bankruptcy as a stand-alone carrier in the first half of 2007. After rejecting the Nov. 15 bid from US Airways, based in Tempe, Ariz., Delta executives met with US Airways and creditors last week to go over the proposal.

Spokeswoman Betsy Talton in an e-mail reiterated Delta's intention to remain independent and said the company's strategy to pare annual expenses by $1.9 billion and add $1.1 billion in revenue is working. Delta, the biggest U.S. airline in bankruptcy and third-largest overall, has shed 138 aircraft and started more than 50 new overseas routes while in Chapter 11.

A US Airways spokeswoman, Elise Eberwein, declined to comment on Grinstein's letter.

Grinstein told employees that the airline would protect employees' seniority. Delta flight attendants and ground workers have seniority and recall rights, although the pilots are the carrier's only large labor group in a union.

"No proposed transaction, now or in the future, will gain our support without provisions that will honor Delta's long-standing commitment to respect and protect the seniority rights of those on the frontline," Grinstein wrote.

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Contributing: Mary Schlangenstein