ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots have until today to approve a tentative agreement on temporary pay cuts their union worked out with management to help the bankrupt carrier deal with an expected cash crunch.

If the pilots don't approve the measure, a court hearing would resume around Jan. 2 on Delta's effort to reject the pilot contract so the company can impose $325 million in permanent pay and benefit cuts unilaterally. A decision by a judge could be issued within seven days of that point.

Before the agreement was reached earlier this month, the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Atlanta-based Delta's 6,000 pilots, had threatened to call a strike if the pilot contract was thrown out.

Keith Rosenkranz, a Delta pilot based in Atlanta who has worked for the company for 15 years, said he plans to vote for the temporary pay cuts based on union leaders' recommendations.

"Nobody likes a pay cut, but I support our union and they've asked for this vote and more time so they can negotiate with the company," Rosenkranz, who regularly flies international routes to Europe and South America, said in a telephone interview.

The tentative agreement includes a 14 percent across-the-board wage cut for pilots and reductions in other pilot pay and cost items equal to an additional 1 percent hourly wage reduction.

Before the deal, Delta's pilots were projected to make an average annual salary of $169,393 in 2005, according to company filings. Based on that and the number of Delta pilots, the cuts would equal up to $152 million on an annual basis. The company has valued the deal at roughly $143 million based on internal figures.