Neither the airline nor the union, the

Top of Form 1

Bottom of Form 1Air Line Pilots Association, would disclose the details of what they termed a "tentative" agreement.

The deal still has to be voted on by ALPA members and then must receive the green light from the bankruptcy court overseeing Delta's restructuring.

The ALPA said the agreement was expected to be presented to its governing body "in the upcoming weeks".

The union voted overwhelmingly this month to strike if Delta was allowed to scrap its collective contract with pilots, as part of a management campaign to slash costs through steep cuts to salaries.

Delta Air Lines Inc. chief executive Gerald Grinstein had warned that a strike could shut down the airline within 24 hours.

Both sides have been locked in acrimonious talks for months. Without an agreement, an arbitration panel was due Saturday to reach a decision on the third-biggest US airline's request to tear up the contract.

"We have worked hard together as a team to forge an agreement that is good for Delta and all of its constituents," said Delta's chief financial officer Edward Bastian, who is in charge of the restructuring drive.

"Delta passengers can continue to book on Delta with confidence. There has been no disruption to our service," he said in a statement.

"Our pilots are performing professionally, flying as scheduled, and together with all Delta employees, are taking good care of our customers."

The company said it was on track to achieve about 70 percent of its restructuring by the end of this year, with a view to emerging from bankruptcy in 2007.

Delta filed for "Chapter 11" bankruptcy protection last September, on the same day as rival carrier Northwest Airlines Corp.

Northwest last month also averted a catastrophic strike when it reached a tentative agreement with its branch of the ALPA.

Traditional US airlines, suffering from high overhead, including labor costs, have been in a tailspin since the September 11, 2001 attacks and a subsequent slump in air travel. High fuel prices have worsened their woes.

In September, Delta announced its intention to slash 17 percent of its workforce, or 7,000 to 9,000 employees, by the end of 2007 as part of a plan to save three billion dollars by December 2007.

The budget cuts -- including 930 million in salary cuts, with one-third coming from the pilots -- were announced in addition to five billion dollars in reductions included in a September 2004 restructuring plan.

Delta reported a record loss in 2004 of 5.2 billion dollars. The last time it turned a profit over the year was in 2000.

Both Delta and Northwest are members of the SkyTeam global alliance, which also includes Air France-KLM, Continental Airlines and Korean Air. Russia's Aeroflot became the 10th SkyTeam member on Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060415/ts_afp/uscompanyairlinelabor_060414164726