Northwest Airlines reached a tentative pay-cut deal with negotiators for the Air Line Pilots Association, possibly allowing the bankrupt carrier to avert a strike that could have caused it to fail outright.

The accord still had to be approved by union leadership and then submitted to members for a vote.

Pilots had already given their leaders authority to trigger a strike, if the two sides could not agree on cost savings under collective bargaining and the company instead tried to implement its own plan.

A bankruptcy court judge did not rule on the company's request to void the contract, and after the judge's delay period expired on March 1 Northwest could have legally pursued its own cuts. But the company was able to reach a cost-cutting deal earlier in the week with its flight attendants, and kept negotiating with the pilots as well.

Northwest was the fourth-largest U.S. air cargo carrier in 2004. It operates a fleet of freighters in addition to carrying freight in passenger planes.

Mark McClain, head of the Northwest Airlines unit of ALPA, said that "the tentative agreement is a painful but necessary part of a successful restructuring" of the company.

John D. Boyd