Northwest, Delta pilots plan uncertain: source

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Leaders of the union representing pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) and Northwest Airlines Corp NWA.N have a plan for combining the two work groups should their companies merge, a press report said on Tuesday, but a source familiar with the talks said the report was premature.

Although the source called inaccurate the Detroit News account that pilots had reached an agreement on how to merge seniority lists, speculation intensified that senior executives at the two airlines were closing in on a merger proposal that could be presented to their respective boards this week.

A deal "possibly will happen" in the next two days, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Delta and Northwest, industry sources have said, would prefer to offer a plan supported by labor, especially pilots, and have given those two unions time over the past two weeks to work out an agreement for combining their units. Both are members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

The union represents 11,000 pilots at both carriers and each group has promised no consolidation without their input. Pilots also have said they would not be rushed into any agreement.

In addition to hammering out seniority, which is crucial to nearly every pilot's career, pilots also want equity in the combined company and other sweeteners to offset some concessions unions that made during bankruptcies at both airlines.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson, with additional reporting by John Crawley in Washington and Jui Chakravorty Das in New York)