By TED JACKOVICS
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA – As Delta Air Lines emerged from 19 months of bankruptcy protection Monday morning, local airport officials say they hope the carrier eventually will restore service out of Tampa.  Since filing bankruptcy, the carrier has had a strategy of reducing domestic service to focus on new, more profitable international routes.

While Delta executives at the airline’s Atlanta headquarters celebrated and met with news media to announce service and marketing improvements, it was business at usual at Tampa International Airport and elsewhere among Delta’s 330 domestic and international destinations.

“I didn’t notice any changes,” said Delta passenger Joseph Nouham of Manchester, Vt., who checked in this morning with Delta for a flight from Tampa to Hartford, Conn. “They go where I want non-stop and that’s what matters to me.”

Tampa International director Louis Miller said Delta hasn’t informed him about major changes to local service, but he hoped the carrier would eventually increase flights. Delta is Tampa’s second busiest carrier, serving eight U.S. airports non-stop.

“We hope Delta can start making more money and (resurrect) some of their capacity, which has declined by almost 25 percent of their seats serving Tampa since they filed for bankruptcy protection,” Miller said.

That reduction in number of seats on Tampa flights is in line with Delta’s strategy of flying smaller aircraft on U.S. routes and assigning its larger aircraft to international service.

Delta reported 127,594 departing passengers from Tampa International in March, a decline of 10.2 percent from a year ago and of 27.7 percent from March 2004.

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