Striking mechanics at Serbian flag carrier JAT Airways ended a three-week strike and will return to work, Serbian media reported on Friday.

Mechanics had protested over back pay, job cuts in their department and alleged mismanagement of the state-owned airline. JAT had operated with hired planes and had cut the number of scheduled flights.

JAT's management said the workers agreed to end the strike after the government moved forward a planned spin-off of their department into a separate firm, called JAT Technics.

The government has long planned to move non-core operations into separate companies as part of a drive to restructure the airline. The spin-offs of businesses including hotels, a pilot academy and catering and technical maintenance services are due by June.

But the striking mechanics wanted their section to go first, hoping to keep their jobs in a new firm, which would be managed separately from JAT.

The debt-laden airline, set up in the communist era to serve the former Yugoslav market of some 20 million people, has announced a drastic restructuring, including firing or spinning off two thirds of its 3,700 workers.