Swiss International Air Lines, controlled by Germany's Lufthansa, has reached an outline contract deal with a pilots' union that had been threatening to strike.

"Swiss and the Aeropers pilots' union agreed on the principles of a new and forward-looking collective labour agreement," the company said in a statement.

Neither the company nor the union would give further details of the accord, which will take effect on November 1, 2006, until union members had had time to review the proposal, it added.

Aeropers, one of two key pilots' unions at Swiss, warned of possible strikes after contract negotiations broke down earlier this month.

Any strike would have affected around 700 Zurich-based pilots working on 20 long-haul and 20 short-haul routes.