Delta throws itself a coming-out party

When Delta Air Lines Inc. begins airing new national television ads celebrating its emergence from bankruptcy reorganization, viewers with roots in Boston will feel at home.

The 30- and 60-second spots, which will first hit the airwaves in Delta's hometown of Atlanta, and in New York, are not yet scheduled to run in New England. But they were filmed almost entirely inside Delta's $500 million Logan International Airport Terminal A last month and feature glimpses of the airport's iconic 285-foot-tall control tower, as well as the glass pedestrian bridges to the central garage.

With the company fresh out of bankruptcy, "This has been an incredible week for us, a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Donna Koffman, a 24-year Delta veteran who runs the airline's Crown Room Club lounge at Logan. Koffman is one of the "faces of Delta" who shows up in the ad -- "for barely two seconds," she laughed, even though she spent nearly six hours at Logan one Saturday in April for the filming. In the spot, Delta describes how it's "rethinking every mo ment of your travel experience" with "better stuff to watch, hear, eat, and play on board."

Delta executives swept through Boston yesterday, en route from Atlanta to New York and Cincinnati, on a nationwide tour promoting the carrier's return to solvency after 19 months in reorganization and concessions on pay and pensions by pilots, flight attendants, and other workers. They arrived at Logan on board the first jet sporting the new Delta logo and paint scheme. The Boeing 757 was once flown by Delta's Song discount affiliate and has seat-back video and music players for all 186 seats.

Delta's chief financial officer, Edward H. Bastian , said Delta is eager to accelerate growth in service from Boston, potentially including transatlantic service. "Not immediately, but certainly I see that over the next two years," Bastian said.

To boost profitability, over the past two years the company has made deep cuts in domestic service to boost more lucrative international flights. Next month, it will operate up to 216 international flights to 109 destinations, up from 134 flights to 60 cities two years ago, including new nonstop flights from New York to Bucharest and Pisa, Italy.

"Boston's a very important market for us, and a very competitive market," Bastian said. Although American Airlines edges out Delta as Logan's biggest carrier as measured by passenger volume, Delta can now boast of being Logan's biggest airline by seat capacity, in large part because of its hourly New York shuttles and recently launched regional-jet nonstop flights to cities such as Charleston, S.C.; Dayton, Ohio; Nashville; and Savannah, Ga.

Delta this spring has also started a Delta Express service on 19-seat propeller planes, operated by Big Sky Airlines of Montana, to small cities in New York. That service will help Delta to raise its peak daily schedule from Boston to 111 flights to 34 destinations next month, up from 97 flights to 23 destinations in June 2005, Delta spokeswoman Gina P. Laughlin said.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.