UAL to Meet With Regulators on Loans

UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, is scheduled to meet today with a federal panel administering the airline industry loan-guarantee program.

The struggling airline needs to secure $1.8 billion in loan guarantees from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board to help stave off a bankruptcy filing.

To get the support, the second-biggest carrier needs to show the board that it is aggressively cutting costs. One way UAL can do that is to show that its labor unions are willing to make concessions.

Over the weekend, United’s flight attendants union agreed to a $412-million wage cut over 5 1/2 years, becoming the second major union to reach a tentative cost-cutting deal. Pilots recently began voting on their own $2.2-billion wage-cut package over the same period, and smaller unions also have cut deals.

The International Assn. of Machinists has not yet agreed to the concessions, which were broadly outlined at a total of $5.8 billion in wage cuts by a five-member coalition of United unions.