Delta to Lay Off 600 Pilots, Cut Fleet by 28 Jets : Airlines: Permanent employees are being axed for the first time in 36 years. Move is expected to save $100 million a year.

Delta Air Lines said Monday that it plans to lay off 600 pilots and retire 28 jets this year in another retrenchment for the nation’s third-largest airline.

The layoffs, which amount to nearly 7% of Delta’s pilots, are the first of permanent employees at Delta in 36 years.

Airline executives said they were unsatisfied by a concession offer made by the Air Line Pilots Assn. but will not lay off flight attendants or other employees connected with the retired jets.

“We believe that if ALPA had joined us, that some of this possibly could have been avoided,” said Ron Allen, Delta’s chairman and chief executive, referring to pay and benefit cuts accepted by other employees.

The pilots should “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the other Delta workers, Allen said.

Delta said that, although the pilots union accepted a 5% pay cut, the union attached too many conditions.

Allen said the layoffs are not in response to stalled talks with Delta’s pilots union, but that the timing was driven by a need to give notice of its plans to terminate the leases on the jets.

The jet retirements and layoffs should save the airline about $100 million per year, Allen said.

ALPA leaders in Atlanta responded cautiously to the announcement, saying they will study the fleet reduction to determine if it justified the layoffs. Gregg Holm, an ALPA official, said he was skeptical of Allen’s position that the announcement had nothing to do with the labor tal1802710538 “It seemed to me to be a media circus, which doesn’t coincide with the statement that it was not related,” Holm said.

The jet retirements and layoffs should save the airline about $100 million per year, Allen said.

Delta has been losing money at a record pace for two years, including a loss of $126.3 million in the last three months of 1992. For all of 1992, Delta lost $564.8 million.

“One hundred million is still not enough to bring them to sustained profitability,” said Kevin Murphy, an airline industry analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York. “It’s enough to ma1920165985 Layoff notices, expected out by May 1, are due to take effect in June and will continue through autumn. The layoffs will be based on seniority, affecting pilots with one- to two-years’ expe1919509870