The US Airways pilots’ union tentatively agreed to $300 million in immediate cuts Friday in an effort to save their airline, potentially the first major break for the company in months.

The 12-member executive council of the Air Line Pilots Association was meeting late Friday night to decide whether to let its 3,200 members vote on the proposed nine-year contract, with an 18 percent pay cut.

Even if union leaders cleared the proposal for a membership vote, large hurdles remained for the struggling airline – notably, negotiating $650 million in cost-cutting pacts with three other unions.

Still, a new pilots’ contract would be a breakthrough allowing progress on other issues.

“This is a major step forward for our company, its employees, customers and all other stakeholders,” said Bruce R. Lakefield, US Airways president and chief executive officer, about the tentative agreement.

Ratification “is essential to our transformation and would demonstrate their continuing commitment to making our airline stronger and more competitive,” he said.

US Airways Group Inc., the largest carrier in the Philadelphia area and seventh-biggest nationwide, filed for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 12, its second foray into bankruptcy in two years.

Its goal is to transform itself from a “legacy” airline, with an older work force and costs once among the highest in the industry, into a low-cost carrier capable of battling lean rivals such as Southwest Airlines Inc.

Jack Stephan, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the contract would provide “the necessary elements required to successfully implement US Airways’ transformation plan.”

Without significant reductions to survive the slow autumn and winter travel months, the airline has said it might have to begin liquidating by mid-February. The airline has 34,000 employees worldwide and 27,000 in its mainline operation.

The agreement would cut pilots’ pay 18 percent, reduce the company’s pension contributions and loosen work rules to increase the number of hours pilots may fly. The reductions would add up to $1.8 billion over the term of the contract, bringing pilots’ total concessions in recent years to $7 billion, Stephan said.

Pilots, in return, would have a new profit-sharing plan. The airline has not made a profit since the late 1990s.

A contract with pilots would be “a big step forward,” said Philip Baggaley, senior vice president and airline analyst at Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. “But a number of events still have to break in US Airways’ favor for them to reorganize successfully.”

Since entering bankruptcy protection, US Airways upped the amount it was seeking in long-term contract concessions from unions from $800 million to about $950 million.

Unions representing flight attendants, ticket-counter and gate workers were also negotiating with the company, with talks now expected to pick up pace. But the union representing ramp workers and mechanics, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, has signaled it still may resist the cuts.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Mitchell has scheduled a hearing Thursday at the company’s request to consider imposing immediate 23 percent pay cuts on workers who do not reach consensual agreement with the company.

The company likely would modify its motion to exempt pilots from that cut if the union approved a contract.

With the hearing approaching, pilots’ union negotiators tentatively acquiesced to the new terms late Thursday. Its 12-member executive council, meeting in Charlotte, N.C., debated late into the evening Friday whether to send the tentative agreement to its members for a vote.

Four council members, who hold sway on the council because they represent the majority of pilots based in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, had opposed deep concessions and blocked a membership vote on a previous tentative agreement on Sept. 6, precipitating the bankruptcy filing.

Since then, the four pilots have come under intense pressure to relent, even meeting privately with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

Currently, the average pay for US Airways pilots ranges from $75,000 to $150,000 a year, depending on rank, years of service and size of aircraft flown in the mainline or regional-jet operation.

The airline has said it also plans to cut executives’ and managers’ pay and benefits by $40 million and slash operational costs by $700 million in coming years.

William Warlick, an airline analyst at Fitch Ratings in Chicago, said avoiding court-imposed labor cuts could reassure lenders about the company’s odds of ultimate success.

“It may point to a more congenial labor-management environment, if you can say that about this company,” Warlick said. “If the pay cuts were crammed through the court, you might be concerned about backlash.”