Some airlines and elected officials contend that squeezing out smaller planes would eliminate routes to small communities.

A merger would yield substantial cost savings by eliminating overlapping routes and flights.

He quickly slashed the work force to 36,000 from 59,000, modernized the fleet and eliminated unprofitable routes.

Separate shipping companies that had run multiple ads in the paper merged and eliminated competing routes.

The drop in revenue per mile comes despite the airlines' well-publicized efforts to cut capacity by retiring old planes and eliminating routes.

He cut the work force by 15 percent, eliminated unprofitable routes and replaced all 11 senior executives with five of his own choosing.

However, they were able to eliminate several possible routes.

The Eastern retrenchment forced four commuter airlines to eliminate routes serving 20 cities.

The second part of the strategy is eliminating less profitable domestic routes, which Delta plans on shrinking by 15 to 20 percent over the next two years.

They have looked everywhere in making cost cuts, from employees' wages and benefits to retiring aircraft to eliminating unprofitable routes.