DENVER -- United's Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton was in Denver Wednesday to meet with employees and share details about the company's plan for restructuring and returning to profitability.

SURVEY United is thinking of launching a low-cost airline subsidiary similar to Southwest Airlines. Do you think this is a good idea? Will it help them emerge from bankruptcy? Yes. They will see more profits from this. No. I think it's too little too late. I don't have enough information to make a decision. I don't care, as long as I can buy cheaper airline tickets. Results  |  Disclaimer

Part of that plan includes reducing costs, launching a low-cost airline subsidiary similar to Southwest Airlines and using more regional jets.

Some of the airline's unions have objected to the plan to create a separate, low-cost airline because it may mean a two-tier pay structure where pilots and flight attendants who work for the new discount carrier would be paid significantly less than those on regular United flights.

Pilots have also objected to the planned reliance on more regional jets because that also affects pay and seniority.

The pilots and flight attendants unions have criticized management for not presenting more specific data to justify the dramatic changes and concessions United is seeking.

BANKRUPTCY Bankruptcy Info FAQs History Of United DISCUSSION: United's Future UAL Stock Quotes RESOURCES United Airlines ALPA: Pilots Union AFA: Flight Attendants Union Mechanics Union Machinists District 141 Machinists District 141M FACTS United has 81,000 employees worldwide. United is 55 percent employee owned. Operates 1,700 flights a day, or 20 percent of all U.S. flights. Has most extensive worldwide route structure of any airline.

Currently, United has about 78,000 employees, including nearly 20,000 flight attendants and about 8,500 pilots.

Under the reorganization, United would need only about 6,000 pilots and they would be forced to boost their monthly flight time from the current 36 hours to 50 hours, a Chicago newspaper reported.

United said it would need its own discount carrier to become more competitive in the leisure travel market.

United, the world's No. 2 carrier and the largest at Denver International Airport, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9 and lost a worst-ever $3.2 billion in 2002. It has been scrambling to overhaul its financial strategy, slash labor costs by a targeted $2.4 billion a year, renegotiate aircraft leases and mortgages and restructure its fleet.

It said it wants to expand United Express and use more 70-seat aircraft because it's falling behind in the industry in the use of regional jets, which are significantly cheaper to operate. Only 23 percent of its fleet is in regional jets, compared with 54 percent for Delta Air Lines and 50 percent for Continental Airlines, it noted.

United's employees already have taken temporary pay cuts that give United until May 1 to secure long-term contract agreements. The pilots agreed to 29 percent wage reductions and flight attendants to 9 percent cuts; the bankruptcy court imposed 14 percent cutbacks on machinists, who include mechanics, ramp workers and customer contact workers.

Tilton, a former oil industry executive with no airline experience, was hired in September to help United, Denver's dominant carrier, dodge bankruptcy court