Delta Air Lines Inc.'s creditors committee wants to hire Gordon Bethune, former chief executive officer of Continental Airlines Inc., to help evaluate competing plans for the bankrupt carrier.

Bethune would be paid $250,000 plus expenses, the panel said today in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing.

The creditors are reviewing Delta's standalone reorganization plan and a hostile $8.34 billion takeover bid by US Airways Group Inc.

Bethune, 65, led Houston-based Continental from 1996 to 2004, taking over after two bankruptcies at the carrier.

His book "From Worst to First" chronicled the recovery at the airline, now the fourth-largest in the U.S.

Bethune was named chairman of Aloha Airlines' nine-member board of directors in August after California billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Co. acquired the company and took it out of bankruptcy.

During his tenure at Continental, Bethune supervised Mesa Air Group Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ornstein, who then headed the airline's regional carrier, Continental Express.

The nine-member creditors committee represents Delta's unsecured creditors and will set terms for any plan for the Atlanta-based carrier to emerge from bankruptcy. Delta, the third-largest U.S. airline, wants to exit Chapter 11 by mid-2007.