DALLAS — Airline executives say worries about recession, high fuel prices and tighter credit seem to have cooled the consolidation fever that gripped the industry a few weeks ago.

Instead, they turned their comments yesterday toward cutting costs and reducing flights, which could give them more power to raise fares.

The comments seemed to reassure investors, who drove up major airline stocks across the board anywhere from 2 percent to 11 percent.

Delta Air Lines Inc. set the tone by offering buyouts to 30,000 employees — more than half its workforce — as the likelihood of a deal with Northwest Airlines Corp. faded. Executives at other carriers talked about controlling costs and raising fares.

"Demand is still pretty good," said Jeff Misner, the chief financial officer of Continental Airlines Inc. "The problem we've got is we're not covering the cost of fuel right now."

Continental expects its 2008 fuel bill to be $1.5 billion or more higher than last year, or about three times its profit for all of 2007.

United Airlines says it faces a $1.2 billion increase in fuel costs, Delta expects to pay $900 million more, and Northwest is budgeting an extra $800 million.

In response, the carriers are considering reducing flights to save money and perhaps drive up fares. Led by United, part of UAL Corp., the carriers raised roundtrip fares by up to $50 per roundtrip last week, and some now charge $25 extra for checking a second piece of luggage.

JetBlue Airways Corp., meanwhile, hopes to boost revenue by rolling out a new program to charge passengers extra for additional legroom, Chief Executive Officer David Barger said.

Delta said yesterday it would reduce its flying by 5 percent.

United plans to ground about 4 percent of its fleet, or up to 20 older Boeing 737s that get poor mileage, CFO Jake Brace said. He said it didn't make sense to fly those jets at current fuel prices.