WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (Dow Jones) - The US Airways Group has reached a deal with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to resolve nearly $2.7 billion in claims in the bankruptcy case and to ensure the agency's support for the airline's reorganization plan.

Under the deal, the pension corporation, the government agency that insures the plans, will receive cash, a note and an ownership stake in the reorganized airline to settle its claims rising out of US Airways' termination of its pension plans earlier this year.

The agreement removes a potential roadblock to US Airways' emergence from bankruptcy protection through its merger with the America West Holdings Corporation.

"Resolving claims issues of this magnitude and with a creditor of this prominence represents a very positive step forward in the plan confirmation process," US Airways said in court papers filed Thursday.

The agency assumed responsibility for US Airways pensions covering 51,000 employees, including flight attendants and machinists, after the bankruptcy court cleared the airline to terminate the plans in January. The pension agency had already taken on the airline's pension plan for its pilots.

According to court papers, the agency has asserted that there are about $2.7 billion in claims against the company for the pensions.

The settlement, which requires bankruptcy court approval, gives the agency a $13.5 million cash payment, a $10 million note and 70 percent of the stock available to unsecured creditors under US Airways' proposed Chapter 11 plan.

In addition, the agency agreed not to participate in a potential stock offering to US Airways' creditors as contemplated by the Chapter 11 plan. The pension insurer also pledged not to sell its shares in the reorganized airline for at least five months.

A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for next Friday in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria, Va.

US Airways, based in Arlington, Va., filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time last September.

US Airways and America West expect to complete their merger in the fall. A hearing on US Airways' Chapter 11 reorganization plan, which is built upon the merger, is scheduled for Sept. 15.