in reply to chomp and concatenation of lines

when i run your script against the two input datasets you give (saved as files), i get exactly what your post seems to say you want:

08:49:43;DAL11;08:10;08:30;08:30;08:39;08:47;08:47;08:50;;;;;05:03:00;08:10;-187;;08:30;0;0;;;;;;;;DAL12;DAL;B772;KATL;EGKK;22:05;1325;05:39;339