NEW YORK (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. executives and their attorneys met with creditors on Wednesday at a hotel in a first step toward working out the bankrupt carrier's debt problems.

Executives from the airline said they hoped to achieve cost savings of $3 billion by 2007 through lower employment costs, improving productivity and restructuring debt.

The meeting is expected to result in the selection of members for a committee to represent the airline's creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings. That committee is expected to begin choosing legal and financial restructuring professionals Wednesday.

About 300 people crowded a conference room at a Marriott on Manhattan's East Side.

Edward Bastian, the chief financial officer of Delta, told creditors at the meeting that the company ''must run a frugal, cost-conscious airline.''

Like other major carriers, Delta has been struggling to deal with competition from low-cost carriers such as JetBlue Airways Corp. as well as higher fuel costs.

Delta executives said they hoped the airline would be profitable by 2007.

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