TWA Says Quick Route Sale Critical to Survival : Airlines: The pilots union disputes the claim, saying the European flights are necessary to stay competitive.

Trans World Airlines has warned that it is “facing severe financial difficulties” and that its survival is at stake unless the proposed sale of its routes between London and the United States is quickly approved.

The comments accompanied a recent filing with the Transportation Department in which the carrier hinted that it might face bankruptcy if it does not get cash soon.

TWA, which last week dramatically slashed its European schedules and began laying off about 3,000 workers as a result, said “successful and rapid completion of these route transfers has become essential to (our) short-term survival.”

In commenting to the federal agency, TWA was specifically answering the objections of others--primarily airlines and labor unions--to the sale of its route between London and Chicago to American Airlines. That transaction, for $110 million, took about a year to gain tentative approval from the department.

It was temporarily approved on Jan. 8, the same day that the department also gave tentative approval to the sale of Pan American World Airways’ London routes to United Airlines for $290 million and on the day that Pan Am sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Analysts said TWA’s pronouncements made clear that it was also trying to call attention to an even larger deal--this one for $440 million--in which TWA would turn over the remainder of its London routes to American Airlines.

Transportation Department spokesman Hal Paris said that transaction is under review.

Analysts also said TWA’s strong language was an attempt to pressure the government to expedite the approval of the larger deal. TWA maintains that the Pan Am sale of its routes to London took only three months to gain tentative approval, while the sale of the Chicago route took much longer.

“To be sure,” said TWA in its filing with the government, “unlike Pan Am, TWA is not operating under bankruptcy protection. But TWA’s (cash) position has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks, and it has made substantial cutbacks in its U.S.-London and other U.S.-Europe services. Prompt approval of the proposed transfer of route authority to American is essential if TWA is to avoid Pan Am’s fate.”

TWA’s pilots union in a statement Tuesday disputed the company’s view. The union said the airline wasn’t in imminent danger of collapse and that it needed its European routes to survive.

The pilots said proceeds from the route sale would not be used to expand TWA. Instead, the union said, funds would help pay off the huge debt TWA took on when its chairman, financier Carl C. Icahn, took the airline private nearly three years ago.

Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner “has his pen poised over the death warrant” of TWA, the union said. “The choice is clear: Save a profit for Carl Icahn . . . or save a great airline.”

Times staff writer Denise Gellene in Los Angeles contributed to this report.