With other financially struggling airlines, Delta has been seeking congressional approval to extend the legal period for eliminating its pension funding deficit.

Company lobbyist Scott Yohe said in an interview that Atlanta-based Delta has made no final decision on retention of its pension plan. Further, even an extension of the period for eliminating the plan's funding gap to 25 years might not be enough to save it. Plan assets fall short of covering future benefits by $10.6 billion.

"What is clear is that if there is not an airline funding (extension), there will be no opportunity to save the plan," Yohe said.

No. 3 Delta filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 14 after losing almost $10 billion in the past four years.

The airline has been pushing for more than a year to get Congress to allow the company to spread out required payments into its pension fund over 25 years.

The proposal does not give Delta any money, but it grants it and other airlines more time than the seven years currently proposed by the White House and congressional leaders to fully fund its plan.

While in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, US Airways and United Airlines defaulted on their pension plans, handing them over to a government insurer. US Airways has emerged from bankruptcy protection. United says it expects to exit before next February.

If Delta were to default, that action would affect 28,000 retirees directly by possibly reducing monthly stipends. A Delta pension default would result in a loss of $2.2 billion to workers and $8.4 billion to the corporation, the government says.

A default also would require the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. - the government entity that insures benefits up to certain maximums - to pick up Delta's plan. Delta has already said it does not intend to make its next scheduled required payment by the end of the year.

The company has said its pension requirements would exceed $3.1 billion in the next three years.

The PBGC is already underfunded by $23.3 billion but would continue to pay Delta pensions. A bill in the U.S. Senate would give airlines 14 years to make their plans whole, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has said he would amend that, when it hits the Senate floor, to include 25 years for airlines.

The House bill, being shepherded through by Health, Education and Welfare committee chairman Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, includes no such industry-specific language. Boehner has said repeatedly that he is against granting special exemptions to individual industries.

Source: USATODAY.com