MINNEAPOLIS — Northwest Airlines CEO Doug Steenland will have about 8 million reasons to bail out of the struggling carrier this June.

His contract — signed the day Northwest entered bankruptcy more than two years ago — gives him an unusual one-month window to leave voluntarily and collect a special payment of at least $7.8 million. Steenland could get the same windfall if he leaves after a merger, but it's far from certain the carrier's talks with Delta Air Lines Inc. will lead to one.

Compensation experts said such lucrative escape clauses are an incentive to keep the CEO from leaving during the rough times. Others said CEOs whose companies go into bankruptcy shouldn't get that kind of reward.

Without a merger, quitting outside the June window would bring Steenland only $558,164. Stock and options aimed at giving him a reason to stay are worth less than his June departure package because Northwest's shares have lost two-thirds of their value since its bankruptcy exit.

Steenland, 56, joined Northwest Airlines Corp. as deputy general counsel in 1991 and has led what is now the nation's fifth-largest carrier since October 2004. Northwest entered bankruptcy less than a year later, in September 2005.

Northwest would not comment on the payout or on Steenland's plans. All the figures are from Northwest's most recent salary disclosure in an April 2007 SEC filing, and are based on Steenland's pay as of the end of 2006. They've almost certainly grown since then.