British Airways has said it is offering to meet the union without pre-conditions.
Unite, the union at the centre of the dispute, said it was glad that airline management had seen sense.
Meanwhile, British Airways is taking legal action to halt a 12-day strike planned by cabin crew over Christmas, alleging balloting irregularities.
'BA is now seeking an injunction to prevent the strike going ahead,' the flag carrier's chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement on Tuesday.
Cabin crew voted on Monday to walk out from 22 December in a dispute over job losses and changes to working practices.
BA believes ballot papers were sent to staff who had left the company or were in the process of leaving and should not have been balloted, breaching industrial relations law, a BA spokeswoman said.
13,000 British Airways staff were balloted by Unite, 92.5% of whom favoured industrial action.
The airline is seeking 75% of its crew to accept pay rises of between 2 and 7% this year and a pay freeze in 2010.
They want 3,000 staff to switch to part-time working and a reduction in onboard crewing levels from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from London's Heathrow airport.
Richard Branson, founder of rival Virgin Atlantic, called on the British government to step in to prevent damage to passengers' holiday travel plans.
Mr Branson said 'It is obviously extremely damaging to everybody, the company, employees, and most importantly the travelling public and there must be a better way than strikes to resolve differences.'
Pay row
Meanwhile, airport baggage handlers and check-in staff are set to launch a series of 48-hour strikes next week in a row over pay.
Unite said workers at Heathrow and Aberdeen airports employed by SAS Ground Services will take action from 22 December with further walkouts planned on St Stephen's Day and 3 January.
The stoppages will hit travellers on Turkish, Emirates and Thai airlines at London Heathrow and KLM, Air France, Wideroe and Atlantic at Aberdeen, said Unite.
Kevin Hall, Unite's regional industrial officer, said that 'We have been trying to get this company to move on a fair wage deal for months now.'
Mr Hall continued 'It is obscene that they can fill the pockets of their directors yet deny workers fair wages and a decent pension, particularly as last year the UK workforce took job losses and pay cuts to help the company through a difficult time.'
SAS Ground Services (SGS) in a statement said only a minority of their staff voted to strike.
They said Unite 'demanded a substantial pay increase' during negotiations in the past six months and that 'management responded with what it regarded as a reasonable and fair pay deal in the current UK economic climate.'
SGS UK Managing Director Jo Alex Tanem said they 'have put together a comprehensive plan to minimize any disruption to our customers.'
