Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines may sell stakes in their regional units to bolster cash depleted by high fuel costs and tough competition, their finance chiefs said on Friday.

The two airlines are trying to avoid becoming the next to file for bankruptcy in an industry hammered by high fuel prices and fierce competition from low-cost airlines. Both had previously suggested they hoped to raise funds by selling the regional carriers.

"Delta is not failing to plan, and we are certainly not planning to fail," the airline's Chief Financial Officer Michael Palumbo told an analysts' conference. "We're looking at non core assets and the overall efficiency of the leveraging of the collateral we have in place."

Delta's assets include regional carriers Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which analysts have said could fetch from USD$600 million to USD$1 billion for the two combined.

Continental is looking for buyers for its 8.5 percent stake in regional feeder ExpressJet Airlines, a 49 percent stake in Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines, and Continental Micronesia, its CFO, Jeffrey Misner said at the conference.

"We're looking at that all the time," Misner said, referring to a sale of the units. "If we see an opportunity, we'll latch onto that relatively quick."

CFO Palumbo said Delta was striving to avoid bankruptcy by cutting costs and raising revenue by a combined USD$5 billion by the end of next year, but did not rule out following rivals United Airlines and US Airways into Chapter 11.

"We have a plan that is designed to be executed outside of the statutory process," he said, referring to bankruptcy.

Palumbo added that he believes there is a "tipping point" for oil prices at about USD$45 a barrel beyond which no airline including Delta could make money.

Delta's business plan would allow it to eventually turn a profit at USD$40 to USD$45 a barrel, he said. US crude oil futures on Friday fell to USD$48.65 a barrel.

Delta is not counting on lower fuel prices, though, and is "implementing plans to dig deeper" to find additional cost cuts, Palumbo said.

Continental's Misner reiterated that the Houston-based carrier would like to maintain its unrestricted cash at around USD$1.5 billion, slightly above the USD$1.38 billion it had at the end of the first quarter. Delta had USD$1.8 billion in unrestricted cash at the end of the quarter.

"The problem is we've learned you can have some pretty big shocks in this industry... and you can go through the cash pretty quick," Misner said.