Originally Posted by
Asturias56
I think Mole has it right - and it's not just CX.
The airline business is expanding rapidly in what we laughingly used to call the "third World" - that's where the expansion in jobs will be (just look at the Airbus & Boeing order books). These will be local airlines and they will want their terms and conditions to reflect local values and costs. There will be a big push to replace expat pilots with locals on local terms. And for local pilots those terms and that job will still be very very attractive compared to other jobs on offer.
CX has always been a bit of an anomaly, or rather a colonial era hold-over, with expensive expat crews in what is now a very different place. After 20 years it's not surprising the screws are being tightened - TBH I'm surprised it took so long.
If you work there you either accept that you still (currently) have a damn good package but it will be constantly eroded or you bail out and try and find a similar package elsewhere - tho' I suspect many will find that with the rise of the LCO's in the western world those packages are harder and harder to find.
You can sit and moan about contracts, and the way things were , and what you thought you were getting into 10+ years ago or you can shape up or ship out. It's a choice many people face in all sorts of jobs these days - especially in the ex-pat communities.
Mostly reasonable post. However, one would be hard pressed to argue that CX’s mismanagement hasn’t harmed the airline and its employees. They didn’t just face market pressures. They coupled them with horrible decisions about many things. The truth is that Hong Kong is still a VERY lucrative market. Yes, there is competition, but CX is still the only full service airline with a hub in HK. CX’s market position only got stronger as it integrated KA, and it will do so further with HKE. The CX group is one of the world’s ONLY airlines that couples a robust cargo market with passenger flights. Most airlines survive primarily on passenger revenue. Not CX, a significant amount of its revenue comes from freighters and belly space on passenger flights. It’s a very profitable setup. To argue that CX cannot afford expat costs is debatable. If it is true, the gross mismanagement hasn’t helped.