diff --git a/airflow/contrib/example_dags/example_gcp_sql_query.py b/airflow/contrib/example_dags/example_gcp_sql_query.py
index af7c5c24479fa..5439fb6afc7e8 100644
--- a/airflow/contrib/example_dags/example_gcp_sql_query.py
+++ b/airflow/contrib/example_dags/example_gcp_sql_query.py
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@
 # MySQL: connect via proxy over UNIX socket using pre-downloaded Cloud Sql Proxy binary
 try:
     sql_proxy_binary_path = subprocess.check_output(
-        ['which', 'cloud_sql_proxy']).rstrip()
+        ['which', 'cloud_sql_proxy']).decode('utf-8').rstrip()
 except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
     sql_proxy_binary_path = "/tmp/anyhow_download_cloud_sql_proxy"
 
diff --git a/airflow/contrib/hooks/gcp_sql_hook.py b/airflow/contrib/hooks/gcp_sql_hook.py
index aee0098b07de5..43e664d15c857 100644
--- a/airflow/contrib/hooks/gcp_sql_hook.py
+++ b/airflow/contrib/hooks/gcp_sql_hook.py
@@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ def start_proxy(self):
             self.log.info("The pid of cloud_sql_proxy: {}".format(
                 self.sql_proxy_process.pid))
             while True:
-                line = self.sql_proxy_process.stderr.readline()
+                line = self.sql_proxy_process.stderr.readline().decode('utf-8')
                 return_code = self.sql_proxy_process.poll()
                 if line == '' and return_code is not None:
                     self.sql_proxy_process = None
@@ -522,7 +522,7 @@ def get_proxy_version(self):
         command_to_run = [self.sql_proxy_path]
         command_to_run.extend(['--version'])
         command_to_run.extend(self._get_credential_parameters())
-        result = subprocess.check_output(command_to_run)
+        result = subprocess.check_output(command_to_run).decode('utf-8')
         pattern = re.compile("^.*[V|v]ersion ([^;]*);.*$")
         m = pattern.match(result)
         if m: