Delta Air Lines reached a tentative agreement with its pilots Sunday that the airline says will make them the highest-paid in the industry.

        The deal came six days before the airline could have suffered its first pilot strike and only the second work stoppage in company history.

        It was the result of five days of talks at the National Mediation Board's offices in Washington, D.C. — talks seen by many analysts as a last-gasp effort to get a settlement before next Sunday's strike deadline.

        Immediate details were sketchy, with the 9,700-member pilot union saying that the deal would raise pay 24 to 35 percent over the life of the contract and provide full retroactive pay to May 2000, when the deal came open for negotiation. The contract would again be amendable in May 2005.

        Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, had been negotiating with the pilots since September 1999. About 1,000 of those pilots are based at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, the airline's second-largest hub.

        Delta did not release specifics on the deal. But company chairman and chief executive officer Leo Mullin said the contract, if approved, would make Delta's pilots the highest-paid in the industry and “provide other industry-leading improvements.”

        Richard Gritta, an economics professor and airline industry expert at Oregon's University of Portland, was stunned at the apparent size of the pilots' raise.

        “That absolutely blows my mind. That's incredible,” he said.

        “Labor is such an important cost in this industry ... this is going to have major ramifications for Delta if the economy slows down any more,” Mr. Gritta said. “We could see airline revenues fall more sharply overall and a big contract like this can really hurt an airline in bad times.”

        Delta last Wednesday posted its first quarterly loss in six years, citing a continued economic slowdown, the strike at its subsidiary Comair and the threat of a strike by its own pilots.

        But Delta may have decided a settlement was cheaper than enduring delays or a strike during the summer travel season.

        United Air Lines' pilots didn't strike last summer, but their refusal to work overtime, combined with bad weather, the company's problems with the mechanics union and crowded planes, gave United an extensive problem with delays and left with consumers avoiding the airline.

        Delta's pilots said last fall they wanted a contract better than the one that United and its pilots agreed to in September.

        The Air Line Pilots Association's master executive council will meet Saturday to consider the agreement with Delta. If the council approves the deal, it will presented to the entire membership for a ratification vote at a date to be determined.

        “We are pleased that we were able to achieve a tentative agreement through the collective bargaining process and without government intervention,” said union chair Chuck Giambusso.

        The union also said the tentative agreement would improve retirement, job security, and raise pay for pilots at Delta's low-cost Delta Express subsidiary.

        The agreement came after the company repeatedly had said it was not confident the two sides could negotiate a settlement by Sunday, when the pilots could have gone on strike barring a new deal or intervention by President Bush.

        As recently as Wednesday, Mr. Mullin said he was confident the White House would step in and appoint a Presidential Emergency Board, which would have delayed a possible strike by 60 days.

        Mr. Bush has said he will do everything he can stop airline strikes and ordered an emergency board last month to delay a walkout by mechanics at Northwest Airlines. Those two parties reached a tentative agreement earlier this month.

        A president, however, can't name such an emergency board without a request from the National Mediation Board.

        Mr. Mullin on Sunday thanked the Bush administration for its guidance. He also thanked mediation board member Magdalena Jacobsen, who oversaw the last stages of the talks.

        Ms. Jacobsen also is overseeing talks between Comair and its 1,350 pilots, who went on strike March 26. Those talks resume Wednesday in Washington.

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