A federal appeals court Thursday effectively told the union representing pilots for Delta Air Lines to help stop a two-month no-overtime campaign by its members.

        The campaign resulted in more than 4,000 flight cancellations in December alone, Delta officials say, and inconvenienced more than 350,000 passengers.

        Whether the decision will allow Delta to quickly resume a full schedule remains to be seen.

        The nation's third-largest carrier has been canceling flights well into February and it could take weeks to implement an injunction. The union, which is negotiating a contract with Delta, said it would appeal to the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

        A three-judge panel unanimously ruled Thursday that the Delta branch of the Air Line Pilots Association must stop the no-overtime campaign, calling it an illegal job action. It reversed a lower court's findings that the union could not be held responsible.

        It also sent the case back to the district court, telling it to craft an injunction that requires the union to more aggressively aid in keeping voluntary overtime requests at normal levels.

        “The district court properly determined that Delta's pilots were engaged in an unlawful no-overtime campaign,” Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat wrote in the decision. “However, the district court improperly interpreted the gravity and depth of ALPA's responsibility under the (Railway Labor Act) to prevent such an unlawful job action.”

        The union says it has already tried to discourage the no-overtime campaign, but also says it is an individual pilot's right to not request overtime. Still, ALPA officials vowed to comply with any future injunction despite its planned appeal.

        “We are disappointed because we feel we have been very forceful with our members over the last 2-2 1/4 months, telling them that any concerted efforts to slow down the schedule doesn't help our bargaining situation,” ALPA spokesman Gregg Holm said. “But we can't say what exactly our next step is, other than complying with the court and putting together an appeal, since we're still reviewing the ruling.”

        Contract negotiations between Delta and its pilots have been under way for more than a year, and the two sides entered a 90-day federal mediation period last month. If there is no agreement by Feb. 28 — and both sides and the mediators agree that one is not close — there will be a 30-day cooling off period. After that, the pilots would be allowed to conduct job actions, up to and including a strike.

        Delta says it began noticing a decline in voluntary overtime requests in November, and sued ALPA on Dec. 6, claiming the union was tacitly approving the no-overtime campaign. The Atlanta-based airline says such requests fill out about 5 percent of its 2,700-flight daily schedule, and has been canceling about 125 flights daily since late November because of the issue.

        “We have regretted taking this issue to court but it was necessary to take every available step to protect the travel plans of our customers,” Delta spokeswoman Cindi Kurczewski said.

        Delta's request for an injunction was denied by U.S. District Judge Willis Hunt Jr. on Dec. 11, but Delta appealed, leading to Thursday's decision.

        The ruling said the district court can tell the Delta branch of the pilots union what to say to its 9,700 members, which include about 1,000 based at the airline's second-largest hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

        The ruling stopped short of allowing punishment against the union such as the $45 million penalty a federal court issued against American Airlines' pilots in 1999 for an illegal sickout.

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