On February 22, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a severance plan for Delta executives over the objection of the Air Line Pilots Association. The airline, which filed for bankruptcy in September, wants to introduce severance packages to help reduce the attrition rate among its senior managers. The plan could cost the airline up to $14.3 million. The union argued that this was not the right time for Delta to seek protection for its executives while seeking further concessions from its rank and file employees. They argued that the plan would hurt morale and make reorganization more difficult. In October 2004, the pilots agreed to a nearly 33% wage cut in a failed effort to keep Delta out of bankruptcy. Last December, the pilots agreed to another interim pay cut of 14 percent but a March 1 deadline is approaching on this latest pay cut. Ray