Pilots at Northwest Airlines have agreed to a 24 percent temporary pay cut while talks with the bankrupt airline over a permanent deal continue, the Air Line Pilots Association said on Monday.

The two month agreement, which includes changes in sick leave and other terms, is contingent on proportional, temporary pay cuts for flight attendants and machinists, said Hal Myers, a Northwest pilot and spokesman for the union.

"We are pleased that the pilots have ratified an interim agreement," Northwest spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said in a statement.

The board of the Professional Flight Attendants Association has approved pay cuts, but the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has not. A bankruptcy judge is set to decide on Wednesday whether to impose the temporary pay package for machinists, Myers said.

"We believe proportional cuts are likely," he said.

Northwest, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, is seeking to trim annual labor costs by USD$1.4 billion, including USD$358 million from pilots.

The interim agreement would provide 60 percent of the targeted savings, according to the pilots' union.

The 5,300 Northwest pilots represented by ALPA agreed last December to a USD$250 million cut in annual pay, bringing the reduction so far to 40 percent, Myers said.