Frontier Airlines pilots voted in favor of a new four-year contract that boosts retirement benefits and helps protect jobs.

The carrier said 289 pilots voted for the new contract, and 140 cast ballots against it. Roughly 78 percent of 553 eligible pilots voted.

The contract will start in March.

The agreement calls for cost-of-living wage increases, although it also includes future decreases in the pay scale.

For Frontier, the new deal helps boost productivity and lower certain operating costs.

It also can use nonunion pilots for its turboprop service, scheduled to start this summer.

The two sides had been negotiating on a new contract for more than a year.