Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- United Airlines parent UAL Corp. will have until Nov. 1 to file its bankruptcy reorganization plan, in what a judge said is the final extension unless there are ``compelling and unforeseeable circumstances.''

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff granted the additional 60 days at a hearing today in Chicago. UAL has until the new deadline to file its plan without the possibility of competing proposals from creditors. Wedoff approved the extension over the objection of United's Association of Flight Attendants.

United, the second-largest U.S. airline, expects to exit the Chapter 11 process by early next year, after seeking protection from creditors in December 2002. Chicago-based UAL has tried to reduce labor and other costs in bankruptcy to counter rising fuel prices and compete with discount carriers.

``The case is three years old and it's about time we had a plan on file so we can see what the company is going to look like,'' said Bill Rochelle, a lawyer with Fulbright & Jaworski in New York who represents some United aircraft creditors.

UAL intends to file the reorganization plan next month, Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace said after the hearing.

Financing Proposals

Chief Executive Glenn Tilton told employees in a message yesterday that UAL has received four competing proposals from banks that are each willing to provide $3 billion in debt financing to help the company emerge from bankruptcy.

``The proposed bank lenders have already had a glimpse of the company's plan,'' so creditors should have a chance to see it soon, said Rochelle, who was at the hearing.

United this month reached agreement on new lease rates with most of its aircraft creditors, which the company has said was its last remaining major task before completing a reorganization plan. There's still ``minor squabbling'' over what UAL will pay to acquire 14 planes from creditors, Brace said.

The airline's flight attendants, who since July have been threatening to strike flights at random, protested at the courthouse over termination of their pension plans. The union has said that 67 percent of attendants would lose more than half their benefits if they retire at the current average age of 56.

``We will fight until the bitter end,'' said Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents about 19,000 workers at United.

The airline reached an agreement in April with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that insures defined- benefit pension funds, to terminate the plan, as well as those of other employees. Defined-benefit plans provide fixed payments to employees after retirement.

United has proposed replacing the plan with a defined- contribution plan, similar to a 401(k).

``Flight attendants are the only United employees who currently are not earning any pension benefits,'' Brace said in a statement after the hearing. ``We have an offer on the table, and we think the AFA's efforts are better focused on negotiating a replacement plan for their members as all of our other unions have done.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Lynne Marek in Chicago at lmarek@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 26, 2005 14:57 EDT