Airline facing financial crisis

Thursday, April 17, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines said today it faces the worst financial crisis in its history as it reported a wider first-quarter loss and said it will need to cut costs even further.

For the three months ending March 31, Delta lost $466 million, or $3.81 a share, compared with a loss of $397 million, or $3.25 a share, for the same period a year ago.

Excluding one-time items -- mainly charges for pension benefits related to job cuts -- Delta said it lost $426 million in the quarter, or $3.49 a share. Revenue in the quarter was $3.16 billion, a slight increase from the $3.10 billion the airline brought in a year ago.

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