By Jui Chakravorty Das

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has agreed to revive merger talks with Northwest Airlines (NWA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) despite the pilots of the two companies not having reached agreement on the transfer of seniority in a merger, a person briefed on the situation said on Monday.

Atlanta-based Delta's board members, who convened a meeting on Friday, agreed to press ahead with negotiations with Northwest, which urged Delta late last month to consider reviving the talks.

The merger talks, which would create the world's largest airline, fizzled out in March when the pilots on both sides failed to agree on how seniority would work for the roughly 12,000 pilots in a combined carrier.

Both airlines had agreed to the terms of the deal before the pilots hit a snag in their negotiations, the person briefed on the matter said.

But all those terms, written up when the price of oil was under $90 a barrel, would have to be reworked now, as oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel since then, this person said.

Delta declined comment and Northwest Airlines was not immediately available for comment.

Pilots at Northwest had earlier in the year said they would support a merger with another carrier if the workers received a stake in the combined airline.

Unions see consolidation as an opportunity to claw back some of the hundreds of millions of dollars of wages and benefits lost during the industry's five-year slump, which ended in 2006.