Hoping to breathe life into a stagnant set of union negotiations, US Airways Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield yesterday proposed a new profit-sharing plan that would reward employees with cash if they agree to new cuts and the airline avoids another bankruptcy.

Associated Press US Airways CEO Bruce Lakefield

Leaders of the airline's major unions reacted tepidly. "If this is an inducement to get us to agree to their terms and conditions, I don't see our people going for it," said Chris Fox, local president of the Communications Workers of America, which represents reservationists, ticket and gate agents.

US Airways is asking employees for another $800 million in annual concessions on top of the $1 billion they sacrificed two years ago, and has set a Sept. 30 deadline to achieve them or face the possibility of another round in bankruptcy.

Under the profit-sharing proposal, the Arlington, Va.-based company would pay employees 10 percent of any pretax earnings if the year-end profit margin is less than 5 percent and 25 percent if the profit margin exceeds 5 percent. Cash payments would be made 60 days after the end of the fiscal year, and company officers would not be eligible.

An existing profit-sharing plan, installed during the company's last go at bankruptcy in 2002, pays employees 15 percent of any pretax margin that exceeds 7 percent. But that has not been an issue since the airline has lost $317 million since emerging from bankruptcy in 2003.

In a message to the airline's 28,000 employees, including 8,000 locally, Lakefield called the new plan "unique," saying that Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways distribute their profits via 401(k) accounts instead of cash.

He also said the offer also represents a "generous gesture" by the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the pension fund that owns a controlling stake in the airline, because it would sacrifice a portion of its profits should the company turn itself around.

The new offer is designed to reenergize talks with US Airways unions, and to address one of the pilots' chief complaints -- that the company had not been willing to explain what employees would get in exchange for their cooperation.

Pilot union leader Fred Freshwater, one of two Air Line Pilots Association representatives in the Pittsburgh area, wasn't ready to endorse the offer. He said pilots first must determine if the offer is a fair exchange for the $295 million in annual cuts the union is being asked to approve.