Forum Controls

Latest Jobs

Brampton, ON Canada
Aviation Mechanical Component Shop Technician
Aerocopter Component Services

Brampton, ON
Electroplating Foreman / Forewoman
Aerocopter Component Services

Apprentice Simulator Maintenance Technician
Betts Recruitment Ltd.

Oxfordshire, UK
Temporary Simulator Maintenance Engineer (Mil. Helicopter)
Betts Recruitment Ltd.

Charter Broker
Betts Recruitment Ltd.

Welcome to flightwork.com, the International Pilots Net!
We are a free and independant global pilot community. Take our Quick Tour to find out more or Join Now!

You are currently browsing the forum as a guest which gives you limited access. To make full use of all forum- and community features, you are invited to register. Should you have problems with the registration process, please contact us.

Forum » Australia & Asia Flight Deck Forums » [Asia/AUS] Airliner

Is 2008 going to be a difficult year for Cathay?

Author	Message
Written on: 16. 11. 07 [23:18]
johnnyboy Board SO Topic creator registered since: 16.11.2007 Posts: 8	I've been lately reading in webforums a lot about Cathay Pacific Airways. Most of it, as it seems, got to do with the happines or unhappiness of its pilots. So whats the problem? One issue seems to be the money. A few numbers: A First Officer Hong Kong based earns approx. 12'000 Euro after tax. This sum consists of basic salary, 13th month salary, duty pay, Provident Fund, Housing, Expenses and Profit Sharing. A captain gets about 15'000 Euro in his/her first year. Most readers probably think now: Wow! I would't even know what to do with it! Lets go and buy the new sports car... But when reading in these forums it seems that the problem lies deeper. Cathay pilots are paid according a different payscales. Its quite normal that in a crew of 5 pilots, all of them get paid acc. a different payscale. At the moment ther is the A-scale, B-scale and the newly introduced Unified pay scales. This system seems to do some damage to the working atmosphere. The increase in the pension age from 55 to 65 did also not really help to ease the situation as the company now has to pay a number of pilots a-scale salaries and pilots with lower scales are unhappy because the company pays expensive a-scalers but does nothing to increase the salaries of B and unified scalers. What also is beeing discussed continuously is the union. CX pilots are represented by the AOA. But the AOA lost in 200o in the battle for better conditions and was weakened. Pilots were sacked for their actions, in total 49 (the 49ers). Only a bit more than 50% of all pilots are represented today by AOA. The union is relatively weak as members are scattered around the world and many were unhappy with the union after the 2000 debacle. However the union was able to increase its membership quota in recent months. The company also lost a few court cases, making them to pay money to the 49ers and even to Cabin Crew members, which were not paid correctly over the year. Cathay is following an aggressive expansion plan but more and more pilots walk away from it. More aircraft are arriving, the business is going well. But people are leaving. Are what I've mentioned above the reasons why so many are leaving an airline which once was considered to be among the best employers? You might ask why this is important to me. Well, some threads I was reading really started to worry me as some sounded extremely desperate to leave, resp. were sort of lost within the CX world. In addition I also have friends working there and I wonder how they can cope with all this. Now its up to you to correct me. In what future do you think is CX going? A bright one? Or... [This article was edited 1 times, at last 16.11.2007 at 23:23.]
	Profile
Written on: 07. 12. 07 [16:51]
humblefred Board SO registered since: 07.03.2007 Posts: 7	Cathay is facing increasingly competition in Hong Kong. To safeguard future profitability, cost saving measures are introduced and not all of them are improving terms & conditions. To shorten the interview process for new pilots, the company even dropped the long established classic 2 stage interview process. It's no secret that some applicants went straight for stage two... CX is still a good choice for many but the star has lost some of its glamour.
	Profile
Written on: 20. 01. 08 [13:47]
fliteadmin Board SFO Administrator registered since: 26.12.2006 Posts: 153	Cathay's 2008 will probably not be more difficult than for any other airline. The only constant thing in this business is change and that affects all airlines. Just my 2 cents.. CX has still a pretty strong position in Hong Kong although competition has become stronger in recent years. Regarding happiness of pilots I've seen many happy pilots with CX, but also unhappy souls. Some like it there some don't, just like in any other company. But maybe some guys just see the company and benefits at first. After a couple of years living and working there they are longing again for their home country lifestyle and leave or become frustrated. flightwork.com - International Pilots Net
	Profile WWW

Portal information:

At the time there is 1 user online, thereof 0 registered users and 1 guest.
Today 1 registered user and 8 guests were already online.

Now online

flightwork.com has 715 registered user, 303 topics and 269 answers. On the average 0.93 posts are written per day.

» Show additional information