diff --git a/airflow/providers/docker/operators/docker.py b/airflow/providers/docker/operators/docker.py
index 2216d925ed42d0..b02801aab034a6 100644
--- a/airflow/providers/docker/operators/docker.py
+++ b/airflow/providers/docker/operators/docker.py
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ def execute(self, context):
         # Pull the docker image if `force_pull` is set or image does not exist locally
         if self.force_pull or not self.cli.images(name=self.image):
             self.log.info('Pulling docker image %s', self.image)
-            for line in self.cli.pull(self.image, stream=True):
+            for line in self.cli.pull(self.image, stream=True, decode=True):
                 output = json.loads(line.decode('utf-8').strip())
                 if 'status' in output:
                     self.log.info("%s", output['status'])
diff --git a/tests/providers/docker/operators/test_docker.py b/tests/providers/docker/operators/test_docker.py
index 89ecad372bbfaf..068eaefacf189f 100644
--- a/tests/providers/docker/operators/test_docker.py
+++ b/tests/providers/docker/operators/test_docker.py
@@ -85,7 +85,8 @@ def test_execute(self, client_class_mock, tempdir_mock):
         client_mock.images.assert_called_once_with(name='ubuntu:latest')
         client_mock.attach.assert_called_once_with(container='some_id', stdout=True,
                                                    stderr=True, stream=True)
-        client_mock.pull.assert_called_once_with('ubuntu:latest', stream=True)
+        client_mock.pull.assert_called_once_with('ubuntu:latest', stream=True,
+                                                 decode=True)
         client_mock.wait.assert_called_once_with('some_id')
 
     @mock.patch('airflow.providers.docker.operators.docker.tls.TLSConfig')