British Airways offered Friday to open new talks with the transport workers union, seeking a truce with 8,500 striking flight attendants while averting a separate confrontation with ground workers.

The Transport and General Workers Union handles negotiations for the attendants who walked out Wednesday in a pay dispute and the 9,000 ground workers irked by the airline’s plans to sell in-flight catering operations.

The flight attendants’ strike, which ends Saturday, has been costly for British Airways. It forced the airline to cancel hundreds of flights and left tens of thousands of people stranded in airports.

British Airways chief executive Bob Ayling and Bill Morris, head of the transport workers union, both agreed the end of the strike provides a chance for peace.