Late Thursday, finally, the U.S. Senate passed a 900 plus page pension reform bill. I have very mixed feelings about some of the aspects of this bill — speaking on a grander scale — but clearly the main focus for those in the airline industry was what the bill contained that affected those in the airline industry.

To be more specific, four airlines in particular.

As late as Thursday afternoon, American and Continental were still fighting to get the same 17 year payback period as Northwest and Delta were eligible for under the proposed legislation. But it never happened.

Essentially American and Continental can now stretch out their pension payments out over 10 years, while bankrupt Northwest and Delta get a total of 17 years to do so. However, if either Continental or American wants to freeze their remaining employee pensions — before Dec. 31, 2007 — they too can then qualify for the 17 year time period to play catch-up on the frozen plans.

While Northwest and Delta are clearly the big winners in this one — you can’t really say that American and Continental are hurting. American in particular was looking at at least $1 billion or more in pension payments due in 2007, without the bill having been passed.

But, according to Trebor Banstetter, who wrote Saturday in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex) says she hopes to amend the bill that was passed last week, after Congress returns from its August hiatus, so that both American and Continental get the same 17-year pay-back time extension.

We’ll see. Makes for a nice sound bite for the Senator who represents two Texas-based airlines, but my suspicion is that if Congress reopens this can of worms, it could be worse than if the can is just left on the shelf. As is.