US Airways is asking pilots for steeper pay cuts and more flying amid signs that Bruce Lakefield's brief tenure as chief executive officer may be over if the airline files for bankruptcy.

Bruce Lakefield

Lakefield, 60, told a group of labor leaders late last month that the ownership structure of the nation's seventh-largest airline might change under bankruptcy, resulting in his departure.

Chairman David Bronner has said no one, including himself, would be willing to save the airline and keep it intact if another Chapter 11 filing occurs.

Bronner and Lakefield, who are asking the airline's unions for $800 million in new yearly concessions by mid-September, ahead of a several financial hurdles that month, have stepped up their warnings in recent weeks. Without the cuts, Bronner has suggested, a possible selling off of the airline's various pieces was inevitable.

Their comments have come as company leaders and the pilots union are holding what have been termed make-or-break talks this week in Arlington, Va., where the airline is based.

The company asked this week for a 16.5 percent reduction in pay, 95 hours a month of flying, medical cuts for retirees and changes in sick time rules that, combined, are expected to generate annual savings of $295 million.

The pilots, in earlier proposals, offered pay cuts of 12.5 percent and to fly 93 hours a month, up from a maximum of 85 currently.

The company told pilot negotiators Tuesday that an agreement must be in hand by tomorrow in order for the rank and file to have time to ratify a pact by Sept. 8.

That's one week ahead of a crucial deadline for making a Sept. 15 pension payment that could force the carrier to default on federally backed loans without offsetting savings.

"Bronner has no more interest in a Chapter 11 filing than do any of these unions," said local airline analyst Bill Lauer. "We've got a massive game of chicken going on here."

From the time he replaced David Siegel in April, Lakefield was never expected to be a long-term CEO.

The ex-Lehman Bros. executive came out of retirement with no airline operating experience and said from the beginning that he wanted to help US Airways become profitable again.

"I am not here to quit on you," he told a group of pilots in June.

While Lakefield has said nothing to date publicly about his future in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, he has hinted that he would step aside if the airline turned itself around, telling pilots in June that "eventually, young people need to run the company."