A group of Delta Air Lines' creditors, including Deutsche Bank Securities and Lehman Brothers, urged the carrier on Friday to consider options besides its plan to exit bankruptcy independently.

Delta, which has been operating under Chapter 11 protection since September 2005, earlier this week filed a plan of reorganization that would see it emerge from bankruptcy as an independent carrier, and rejected an USD$8.3 billion takeover offer from US Airways.

The carefully crafted comments from the creditor group, whose members hold about USD$2.25 billion in unsecured claims against the airline, suggest Delta should look at partnerships, indicating the airline has not convinced creditors that its own plan is the best alternative.

The creditor group includes bondholders, hedge funds and other investors who banded together in an ad hoc group, seeking a greater say in Delta's future, soon after US Airways' November 15 bid. The group is known as the Unofficial Committee of Unsecured Claimholders.

All unsecured creditors of the airline are represented by a nine-member court-approved official committee.

In a sign of its seriousness, the official creditor committee said that it wants to hire former Continental Airlines Chief Executive Gordon Bethune as a consultant, according to a bankruptcy court filing.

Bethune would get USD$250,000 for every 10 days of service, the filing said. That would come to more than USD$9 million for a full year of service.

Bethune retired from Continental in 2004 after more than a decade at the airline. He is currently the chairman of Aloha Airlines parent Aloha Airgroup.

After Delta filed its bankruptcy exit plan, the official committee issued a statement similar to that of the unofficial committee, but the ad hoc group's comments are much stronger.

"(It) looks forward to analyzing carefully and discussing with Delta the proposed plan and the assumptions upon which it is based," the unofficial group's financial adviser, Jefferies & Co., said on its behalf. "It expects Delta to consider methodically, proactively and fairly strategic alternatives to its proposed stand-alone Chapter 11 plan."

Creditors holding at least two-thirds of the value of total impaired claims -- debt that will not be repaid in full -- must vote in the plan's favor for it to succeed. The bankruptcy court also needs to approve the plan. Delta assumes a total claim pool of about USD$15 billion.

Delta has repeatedly said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent carrier and hopes to get creditors to vote on its plan by February or March so that it can exit bankruptcy by spring.

But after Delta announced its reorganization plan on Tuesday, Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein said the airline would not want to be left out "if the process of (airline industry) consolidation starts."

The unofficial creditor group now has 17 members, up from nine on December 6, according to its Friday statement. A number of members have been investors in Delta for years, said a person familiar with the situation.