“The government is fully aware of the manpower challenges faced by the industry, so please [be] rest assured that we are adopting a multipronged approach to address the issue.”
Aid measures include a government plan to bring in 6,300 personnel for the aviation sector, part of a wider scheme to bring in 20,000 workers for short-staffed industries.
“As Hong Kong’s home carrier, Cathay Pacific has a very important role in helping Hong Kong to not just rebuild but also continue to grow as an international aviation hub,” the airline’s chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau Hoi-zee said.
The 19 trainees, 16 men and three women, completed 55 weeks of training in Adelaide, Australia, and are expected to join the carrier as second officers next month.
The airline said 400 cadet pilots were currently in training.
‘Surviving in the wild’: Cathay pilots as ground staff at Hong Kong’s airport
Andrew Yuen Chi-lok, from Chinese University’s Aviation Policy and Research Centre, said Cathay had taken a “proactive approach” to meet increased demand following the end of the pandemic.
“Local hires are also crucial to the long-term stability of the cadet programme,” he added.
The airline has trained about 1,000 cadet pilots from Hong Kong since the programme was launched 35 years ago.
Paul Weatherilt, the head of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, which represents Cathay pilots, said the plan to hire 800 flight deck staff over the next two years was an ambitious target, adding it did not tackle the shortage of veteran fliers.
“We are not short of cadets,” Weatherilt said. “We are short of experienced pilots. Under the Cathay system, cadets take years to become qualified.”
The union has estimated that the airline has about half the number of captains and 60 per cent fewer first officers than in 2019. But the number of second officers was about 97 per cent of 2019 levels in June.
Trainees on the new scheme developed by PolyU and Cathay Academy start with classroom-based theory lectures in Hong Kong before they begin flight training in Australia or the United States.
The cadets from the PolyU joint programme are later sent to Cathay’s headquarters in Tung Chung for multi-crew simulator training.
Desmond Tsui, 32, a former civil servant and one of the new second officers, left a desk-bound job to spread his wings.
“A lot of people see government jobs as a stable career with benefits, whereas, as proven in previous years, the pandemic hit the aviation industry a lot … but I did not regret my decision,” he said.
Tsui brushed off concerns about uncertainty over a flying career, such as the potential for airlines to be grounded in another pandemic.
“Perseverance is an important trait in a pilot’s character,” he said.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has lost over half its senior pilots, union says
Patricia Hwang, Cathay’s director of people, said in a memo to staff and seen by the Post that 6,200 employees polled gave a poor score to the question of whether they would recommend the airline as a place to work.
She said that meant “there’s more work needed to help our employees to become promoters of the company”.
Hwang admitted the airline still faced problems but said it was “committed to sharing in the future successes of our business”.
The Cathay Group last week said it expected to make a profit in the first half of 2023, after three years of losses caused by the pandemic.
Cathay and its budget arm HK Express earlier said they aimed to hit 70 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger levels by the end of the year and be back at 100 per cent by the end of 2024.
