NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Northwest Airlines and its pilots union continued talks Wednesday to stop a bankruptcy court from sparking a perhaps fatal strike at the nation's No. 5 airline.

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilot Association unit at Northwest said negotiators were at the table until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning and back at the table at 8 a.m., trying to reach an agreement before an 11 a.m. deadline for the two sides to present their final best offers to the bankruptcy court that's overseeing the airline's reorganization. Neither he nor the company could be reached for additional comment after that 11 a.m. deadline had passed.

Pilots at Northwest are threatening to strike if management tries to impose a new labor pact, even if that strike spells an end to the airline.

"All issues remaining have been discussed before," said ALPA spokesman Will Holman in a morning interview. "There is a chance we could reach a tentative agreement, but the final pieces of the puzzle need to be put in place."

Holman said that even if the judge does toss out the existing union contract, the strike threat would not be implemented unless or until management imposes new wages and conditions on about 5,000 pilots at the carrier.

"We've asked management that question (when a new contract would be imposed) and they haven't given us an answer," said Holman. "It could be immediately or they could use it for additional leverage at the bargaining table."

Airline spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said management isn't commenting on the talks with the union or the court hearing other than to say it is focused on reaching a consensual agreement.

Without a labor deal, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper has the power to void the current labor deal for pilots, opening the way for management to impose new wages and working conditions.

Wednesday morning the Professional Flight Attendants Association, the union that represents 9,700 Northwest employees, reached agreement on a new contract, ending the possibility of the bankruptcy court voiding the current union pact for those workers.

Despite the fact that the agreement called for unspecified additional concessions from the flight attendants, the union said the agreement was a victory because it prevents Northwest from outsourcing some of its flight attendant jobs to foreign workers.

"Clearly, when our flight attendants, customers, and more than 120 members of Congress expressed dismay over the outsourcing scheme, Northwest management listened," said a statement from PFAA Contract Administrator Bob Krabbe, who headed up the organization's Negotiations Committee. "There are some boundaries that should never be crossed, and obviously this was one of them."

Tuesday the pilots union announced that a strike authorization vote at Northwest passed with 92.2 percent support of members.

"Northwest pilots are prepared for all possibilities," said Holman. "They all understand that a strike is a lose-lose situation. I'd say any lengthy strike would liquidate Northwest airlines."

The top paid pilot at Northwest earns about $160,000 a year, according to the union, down about 35 percent from the $246,000 they made before two recent rounds of concessions. The least senior crew member at the airline earns about $60,000, and has been at the airline since about 1998, the year of the last pilots strike at the nation's air carrier.

There have been five pilots strikes at Northwest since 1969.

"Northwest management has a tendency to misjudge the will of the pilots group," said Holman.

The airline kept flying through a strike by its mechanics union last August, but a strike by pilots is more likely to ground the carrier. The airline issued a statement saying it is prepared to fight a strike in court.

"We do not believe that ALPA has the legal right to strike if the bankruptcy court judge allows the airline to abrogate its current contract with that union," said the statement. "If ALPA would attempt to strike Northwest Airlines, the company would seek an immediate injunction. We continue to believe that a work stoppage would not be in the best interest of the airline, its employees, its customers or the communities Northwest serves."

Delta Air Lines, the nation's No. 2 air carrier in terms of traffic, also faces a deadline Wednesday to try to win a new concession deal from ALPA, although that deadline is far softer than the one facing Northwest, and an airline spokesman said it would apparently not be met.

The airline agreed in December not to ask the bankruptcy court to void the pilots contract, and instead agreed to submit the question of further concessions to a three-member arbitration panel. Airline spokesman Bruce Hicks said that it is clear that the deadline will not be met, but he said that talks would continue between ALPA and management while the arbitration process moves forward.

"The fact is, there won't be a consensus agreement reached before the deadline. It's not practical given how far apart the two sides are," said Hicks. "But there's no light switch today. It's not turning off of one, turning on of the other."

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A spokesperson for the Delta unit at ALPA was not available for comment Wednesday.

Hicks said that the panel will hear union and management present their cases the weeks of March 13 and March 20 and is due to issue a decision by April 15.

The union argued last month that a decision to set up a severance plan to compensate top executives at Delta with between six to 12 months of pay if they are laid off would make it more difficult to win the union's agreement to a new concession plan. But the bankruptcy court approved the severance plan, which Delta had argued was needed to stop an exodus of executives.

For more on the dispute over the Delta severance package, click here.