And it counts on winning $600 million in productivity savings from the city's unions.

Delta's two biggest rivals, American and United, have each won significant reductions in labor costs from their unions.

The sale is contingent upon winning $24 million in concessions from The Post's unions, which may be difficult.

The analysts were not optimistic that the company could win meaningful concessions from its unions to cut labor costs.

But management, he said, "has become emboldened," seeing all its major competitors win concessions from their unions in the last three years.

Executives at Northwest have made a similar bankruptcy warning, but thus far have been unable to win cost concessions from their unions.

One hurdle the carrier has to overcome, he said, is to win concessions from its major unions.

Northwest, for example, recently won substantial concessions from its unions to help stave off a bankruptcy filing.

Northwest is trying to win $1.1 billion in wage and benefit cuts from its unions, but only its pilots have agreed to contract concessions.

Other companies were closing plants and winning wage rollbacks from their unions.