IN BRIEF

ATLANTA

Delta foresees changes as it exits bankruptcy

Delta Air Lines has undergone a major face-lift during more than a year and a half in bankruptcy, but other changes are on the way as the nation’s No. 3 carrier exits Chapter 11 today.

Among other things, it has set aside $10 million for a rebranding effort, the company’s chief bankruptcy lawyer, Marshall Huebner, said in court recently. Executives at Delta also have said that after the company exits bankruptcy, it will consider shedding Comair, a Delta subsidiary that provides regional service for the airline.

Delta’s outgoing chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, said last week he did not expect any “immediate action” on Erlanger, Ky.-based Comair since Delta has a new board of directors.

Doug Abbey, a partner in the aviation consulting firm The Velocity Group, said he expects Delta to make a decision on Comair fairly quickly.

“I suspect that’s one of the first orders of business coming out of bankruptcy,” Abbey said. “I can’t even predict how that’s going to go.”

Growth in payrolls expected to be weak

Employers in the U.S. probably added 100,000 workers to payrolls this month, the fewest in two years and a sign the economy was still struggling with a decline in housing and soft business investment.

The gain in hiring is the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and would follow a 180,000 increase in March. The Labor Department’s report, to be released on Friday, is also projected to show the unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent.

The forecasts reflect firings at construction companies and manufacturers, economists said. Fewer jobs threaten to limit consumer spending, which has been sustaining the expansion.

“The economy is dealing with a case of the ‘blahs,'” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York, whose payroll forecast matched the survey median. “It feels a little sluggish, but you are still moving forward.”

LOUISVILLE,KY.

KFC to crow its chicken is zero grams trans fat

KFC’s fried chicken buckets soon will be stamped with a health message along with the famous likeness of its founder, Colonel Harland Sanders.

The banner proclaims that its chicken has zero grams of trans fat per serving.

The Louisville-based chain will announce today that all 5,500 of its U.S. restaurants have stopped frying chicken in artery-clogging trans fat. The company had said in October that it was switching to a new soybean oil believed to be less likely to cause heart disease.

“This idea is a positive one for consumers, and we do expect it’s going to really appeal to people and bring them into our stores,” said James O’Reilly, KFC’s chief marketing officer.