Starting tonight, Northwest Airlines travelers might encounter sporadic, surprise walkouts from flight attendants.

But that doesn't mean a flight will be delayed or canceled by a strike or plans will be derailed or even that flight attendants will strike at all.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero could block any walkouts in the hours leading up to the 4:01 p.m. Hawai'i time launch of any job action. Meanwhile, Northwest says it is prepared to staff all flights amid random walkouts.

"We have a plan in place to ensure that our flights are properly staffed with certified flight attendants to meet both Federal Aviation Administration and NWA requirements and the needs of our customers," Northwest spokes-man Kurt Ebenhoch said yesterday.

The union said its surprise strike strategy, called CHAOS for Create Havoc Around Our System, is designed to make it tough for the company to prepare a response.

"We're going to be pulling flight numbers out of a hat. That's about as scientific as it gets," said Ricky Thornton, spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

Weekly traveler Anthony Scaglione, a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting, plans to fly to Washington at 6:30 a.m. Monday.

He hasn't changed his plans — yet.

"If it unfolds into something ugly, I'm not going to take a chance," Scaglione said.

At issue are wage and benefit cuts the airline imposed on its 7,300 flight attendants last month. Northwest, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, says it needs $195 million in wage and benefit cuts from flight attendants. That's part of $1.4 billion in labor costs the airline cut across the board, including wage cuts from pilots and ground workers.

The attendants, who rejected contract proposals twice, say the cuts are too deep.

The airline says the cuts drop the average salary for most flight attendants from $52,600 to $46,000, not including junior flight attendants who fly on call. The union says the average attendant's salary dropped from $42,000 to $33,000, including those on-call attendants. No talks have taken place since the most recent contract proposal went out to attendants in mid-July.

Both sides are due in court today and Marrero could decide whether a strike would violate federal labor laws. Last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper decided a strike could damage the airline seriously but said he didn't have authority to block it.