Norwegian pilots end strike following new deal with airliner

An 11-day strike by hundreds of pilots at the low-cost airliner Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA ended Tuesday after a new labor agreement was clinched.

The pilots employed by the airliner's subsidiary Air Norway had wanted closer ties to the parent company for better working conditions. The three-month labor dispute escalated on Feb. 28 when 70 pilots started the strike, and hundreds more joined it in the following week.

Under the new deal, the employer has given a guarantee of three-year employment to all its pilots employed in Scandinavia, and will establish a contributory pension for the pilots and a more flexible work schedule, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

"I am very relieved that the strike has been called off and that our passengers finally can feel confident that our flights will operate as normal again. I am terribly sorry for the problems our passengers have experienced as a result of the pilot strike," the company's chief executive, Bjoern Kjos, was quoted as saying.

The strike had grounded the company's all flights in Scandinavia and about 200,000 passengers had been affected.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, trading as Norwegian, is the second largest airliner in Scandinavia and the third largest low-cost carrier in Europe.

It was founded in 1993 with the headquarters in Fornebu, Norway. Endi