United Airlines

In a move that could bring more international flights to Washington Dulles International Airport, United Airlines said yesterday that it will step up flights to cities overseas and reduce domestic service as a part of its larger plan to reduce costs, raise revenue and emerge from bankruptcy. United, the second-largest airline, has been in bankruptcy proceedings for almost two years. Observers had predicted it and other so-called legacy carriers with similar financial woes would begin cutting routes that increasingly are served by low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

A bankruptcy judge gave United Airlines a one-month reprieve yesterday on his threat to allow outsiders to bid for control of the company, giving parent UAL Corp. the exclusive right, until the end of October, to submit a reorganization plan before competing plans can be offered. Judge Eugene Wedoff said the airline's monthly status report, filed Thursday, indicated that the company is making strides toward improving communication with unions and others. Before yesterday's hearing, United struck a deal for another month of exclusivity with all but one party that had been asking the court to revoke it. Wedoff plans to hold a hearing on the matter Oct. 15, the same day he considers a motion by the Machinists union to appoint a trustee to guide United out of bankruptcy.

CHICAGO - United Airlines said yesterday that it needs to shave about $500 million more in costs over what it announced just two weeks ago. The carrier has not decided where it will make the additional cuts, spokesman Jeff Green said. The disclosure came in a filing to update a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on the airline's status for a hearing today. "We haven't been advised of any new cost-cutting programs by United Airlines," said Joseph Tiberi, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Delta Air Lines chief executive Gerald Grinstein told employees this week that the financially strapped airline needed to reinvent itself to survive - a reinvention that needed to start with up to 7,000 fewer jobs. Reinvention is a popular word in the not-so-friendly skies. The question is whether Delta, US Airways and United Airlines have enough time, or the collective wills, to reinvent. With United in bankruptcy and struggling to get out, and Delta and US Airways both threatening to file if employees don't agree to concessions, the airline industry, after $25 billion in losses since 2001, stands on the verge of its biggest shakeout since the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. In the competitive showdown between the established airlines and low-fare competitors, victory might be at hand for the upstarts.

CHICAGO - A deep round of job cuts at United Airlines is needed to help shave another $655 million in annual costs so the carrier can attract financing to exit bankruptcy, sources said yesterday. That would come on top of the $5 billion a year United has said it would save by next year - with half coming through cuts to employees' wages and benefits. "It is clear that achieving cost competitiveness will require additional job reductions over time," United spokeswoman Jean Medina said yesterday.

CHICAGO - A federal bankruptcy court judge gave United Airlines another 30 days yesterday to come up with a restructuring plan, but he warned the airline and its warring unions to cooperate on a solution or he would consider allowing alternative offers for United. Judge Eugene R. Wedoff also approved a bankruptcy financing plan arranged by United in July after its bid for federal loan guarantees was rejected for the third time. At the daylong hearing, there were intense and detailed exchanges among Wedoff, United's lawyers, and those for its unions and creditors, regarding the airline's intentions for its employee pension plans.

For the first time, United Airlines has acknowledged that it is "likely" to terminate its pension plans, a move the carrier said it needs to attract financing to emerge from bankruptcy. A bankruptcy judge in Chicago is scheduled to hear the matter today. The judge also will hear United's plea that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, one of the unions that represents the airline's workers, should not be allowed to sue three of the company's top executives in other courts for stopping the pension contributions.

In the Region Venture capital fund to aid companies tied to 3 Md. schools The New Markets Growth Fund, a $20 million venture capital fund at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, said yesterday that it has started a program to provide $1 million in technical assistance to companies formed at, or formed based on technology from, the University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of...

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers sued three top United Airlines executives yesterday, saying their decision to stop funding pension plans violates their responsibility to employees. The airline, meanwhile, released financial figures for the second quarter showing that, although it is still losing money, it sharply cut its losses compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Last week, United announced it would not make any payments to its underfunded pension plans while it remains in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The federal government said yesterday that United Airlines acted illegally in halting contributions to its pension plans and gave the airline until Thursday to explain how it would revive the plans or acknowledge that it is abandoning them. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. took the unusual step of setting a deadline and making it public because of the extraordinary size of the pension funds at stake. United's four largest pension funds have about $7.5 billion less than the amount they need to pay all promised benefits, according to a government estimate.