Atlanta » Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways are renewing their push for stronger regulations to limit oil speculation.

They say such speculation contributes to huge swings in oil prices and financial losses for airlines -- not just when prices go up but also when they plummet and carriers are stuck paying higher prices due to hedging contracts.

Travelers and workers are hurt in the process by flight and job cuts, the airlines say.

The airline industry made a big push for tighter oil speculation regulation a year ago, when oil prices peaked. But the campaign didn't succeed in getting the new regulations it sought, said Air Transport Association spokesman David Castelveter.

Airlines -- which often oppose new regulation of their own industry on matters such as customer service -- want the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Congress to limit the positions of speculative traders to prevent them from disproportionately controlling commodities markets and to close loopholes.

They point to the effects of oil prices on consumers' costs at the gas pump and for heating and air conditioning.

Airlines are cutting flights and jobs, making moves "they otherwise wouldn't have done if not for oil price volatility," Castelveter said.

Delta general counsel Ben Hirst testified in support of tougher regulation of the oil futures market at a hearing by the Commodity Futures

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Trading Commission last week. It was one of three hearings being held by the commission, whose chairman, Gary Gensler, said "there are significant gaps in our financial regulatory system." The final hearing is scheduled for today.

Atlanta-based Delta, like AirTran and other airlines, suffered when oil prices went up, but also when oil prices went down and it lost $1.7 billion on fuel hedges -- or contracts to buy fuel at preset prices.

Hirst said the "oil price bubble" cost Delta $8.4 billion in total since mid-2007, including fuel expense and hedge losses, leading the company to cut flight capacity by 10 percent and eliminate 10,000 jobs.

Castelveter said because airlines plan flight schedules months in advance but don't know if oil prices are headed up or down, "that makes it very difficult to plan."

Hirst acknowledged that speculators "play a valuable role by providing the liquidity needed for hedging." He said the commission should "ensure there is enough speculation in the market to provide liquidity, but no more than that."