Unionized pilots at Korea‘s largest airline on Wednesday called an early end to its strike originally scheduled to last until Jan. 10. The strike began on Dec. 22.

Through an official statement, the Korean Air Pilot Union said that it had reached an agreement to return to negotiations with the company on Thursday at 3 p.m, holding off the strike from midnight Thursday until Jan. 15. This would be the 10th round of wage negotiations.

The pilots’ union had initially demanded a wage increase of 37 percent, later reduced to 29 percent. The airline has steadily offered no more than a 1.9 percent increase, equal to the hike negotiated with non-pilot employees.
“Even if the negotiations on Dec. 29 do not yield satisfactory results, we will continue to ask for concentrated negotiations with patience and sincerity,” the statement said.

Korean Air put out an official statement saying that the company was “relieved” the pilots had decided to return to the table, while expressing “regret” that the pilots had entered the “groundless” strike in the first place. 

A Korean Air spokesman told The Korea Herald that the company had not yet finalized plans to reschedule canceled flights.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)