World Airways pilots began returning to work Monday after a contract agreement ended a weeklong strike that halted cargo flights at the Peachtree City-based charter carrier.

"The company made the decision to reward pilots for helping make the airline very profitable the last four years," said Mark Ohlau, a World MD-11 captain and chairman of the 430-member group's negotiating committee. "The members showed their resolve."

The tentative deal reached Sunday gives pilots a 4 percent pay increase retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004, an immediate 5 percent wage increase this year and annual pay increases of 4 percent and 3 percent after that. Pilots also get improvements in job protection, health insurance, life insurance and retirement benefits, Ohlau said.

"I think the membership will stand behind their negotiating committee and ratify it," he said. Results of a pilot vote are expected within 30 days, but pilots will resume flying immediately.

World pilots continued flying military passenger charters, which account for about 70 percent of company revenue, throughout the job action. Only cargo and nonmilitary passenger flights were grounded, but those planes were stuck in distant places such as Shanghai, China, and Luanda, Angola.

Steve Forsyth, a World spokesman, said he believed the airline would retain those long-term customers whose operations were affected by the strike. World moves cargo for EVA Air, Air Canada and UPS Supply Chain Solutions.

World operates 17 DC-10 and MD-11 aircraft and specializes in long-range, international charters. The company plans to lease three B747-400 freighters beginning in 2008. The company has been mostly profitable since moving its headquarters to Peachtree City in 2001 from suburban Washington.

This is cache, read story here