CX requires a complete cleansing...

[Trafalgar]

Considering the current dire situation, and the resultant grounding of most of the fleet, perhaps it's time to have a wholesale rethink of the airlines structure, policies, and in particular, the presence of a certain type of individual that has long been the real "virus" at the heart of the airline.

With the unfolding crisis, it is apparent that it will be a long time, if ever, that CX will return to "business as normal". It is fair to say that our industry is undergoing its greatest crisis in modern history, and the outcome will be a wholesale restructuring. None of us would have thought, even in January, that by March almost the entire airline would be shut down, and nearly all other airlines around the world. With that shutdown comes an opportunity to restructure CX to emerge a healthier and once again prosperous company. The one thing that will almost certainly prevent that is if our management, who have in nearly all cases over the past 20 years proven to be lacking in modern management skills, are allowed to continue as before.

That problem can be divided into two categories: 1) an incestuous and myopic Swire culture that does not allow any fresh management thinking, and 2) particular individuals who on any level should have been fired long ago (I will come back to point 2 later). The first category is the reason that CX operates utilizing discredited, inefficient and destructive policies and procedures.

The insistence on populating our senior management with Swire flunkies (and most of them are exactly that) is destructive, as they work almost entirely from a virtue-signaling mindset, always convinced by each other that their way of doing business is the "only" way. There is almost never any fresh thinking from outside. The "UK Public School/Oxbridge" business culture, where any revisionary thinking is automatically rejected has resulted in our airline slowly corroding from the inside out. Many foreign airlines have hired CEO's from outside their industry, thereby injecting new thought and energy into what inevitably becomes a tired and stale culture without such intervention. CX has never experienced that. Just look at the grey, mind-numbing parade of CEO's we've had since the 90's. We've had a succession of narcissists, drug addicts, CCP loving kowtowers, deniers of their own heritage and birthright, ones that didn't even know what aircraft we flew, to someone who in 30 years I had never once heard of. Not a one of them memorable for any single positive accomplishment. The only singularly uniting principle they all have had is their desire to see the pilot profession at CX brought low. That is their one actual roaring success. Well done Gentlemen.

Our crew scheduling is probably the most self-destructive scheduling system used by any reputable airline in the world. It is almost solely responsible for the reason that CX has likely the highest average sickness rate in the industry. If you don't allow your pilots to have some reasonable control over their lives, then the only option left to them is to self-manage the situation through strategic sick calls. The company has brought that on themselves over the past 25 years of abusing their pilots, their families and ultimately their health. The recent promise inherent in the implementation of the new Jeppesen system will be killed at birth as it is once again being hijacked by jealous non-pilots who are manually interfering in the rosters and will send us right back to where we've wallowed for the past quarter century; dysfunction, inefficiency, lost productivity, record sick rates and bloated cost. This system is actually making the pilots lifestyles worse, if such a thing was possible. Our brilliant management have pulled that off however. Again, well done Gentlemen.

This brings me onto point 2). There are certain individuals entrenched within our management structure that are not only incompetent, but who personally exhibit the most awful examples of immorality, narcissism and venality. I realise that it may not be Politically Correct to discuss such things. In the interests of brevity, i'll shorten that term to the initials "PC". In a normal first world business environment and with proper accountability, certain behaviours would be dealt with by summary dismissal. Certainly at the very least, such individuals would never be allowed near the levers of real power. In CX however, "Political Correctness" has moved very close to the top of the Flt Ops empire.

I would like to suggest a hypothetical situation: say you had a manager, who had the responsibility to oversee the performance, careers and "care" of the individuals beneath them. Then surely one of the most basic expectations would be that such a manager would never violate the personal life of one of those under his authority. If such a manager would, again hypothetically speaking, say...commit adultery with a new pilots wife and then, when confronted by the pilot in question, go on to threaten his employment if he didn't back down, would you not say such an individual should never be allowed to manage anyone for a major corporation, at any level, in any capacity? Well, in CX, we have the situation where PC has risen its ugly head, and in fact is looking to make a mockery of such norms of corporate behaviour and morals. PC is a destructive ideology in any company, and will prove to be very much so if allowed to infect the highest office of Flt Ops.

It is an indictment of the Swire's that the ideology of PC seemingly has the backing of the ruling family and high placed officers. It says as much about the Swire's as it does about the presence of PC in our company. It is vile, corrosive and utterly shameful that such a situation exists, and that Swire's have condoned it. No pilot (or other employee) should ever have to be fearful of being subjected to Political Correctness.

I must add, the above example was “hypothetical”. Such an event obviously never happened in CX, as there was never any mention of such a manager being fired. That of course would have happened if such an obscenity had actually occurred. Certainly, in a company that valued its integrity…

This crisis requires a serious re-evaluation of all aspects of CX as a company, a culture and how to properly manage a once proud airline back to health and prosperity. It will surely fail in that goal if it insists on allowing destructive, unworthy and utterly discredited policies and people to continue going forward. If there are decent, forward thinking management individuals anywhere in the current roster of Swire princes, you know where to start, and what to do. Will you? Perhaps start by appointing a credible, non-Swire CEO to CX, and make it someone who actually knows another world exists outside of Swire house. Certainly ensure it is an individual who clearly understands the precept and importance of corporate morality and behaviour.

I have now left the company, so I have no fear of stating these opinions, and I do so for the benefit of all the decent, loyal and dedicated employees that deserve better (much better). That should start with providing a management they can trust and rely on to provide them the support they require. That begins with the personal integrity of the managers themselves. At the moment, the airline is surviving due largely to the unitiring efforts and dedication of one man, and we all know who that is (not to ignore the fact that there are many others making a sincere effort to help the company from the management level). It is a shame that there are so few of his character and integrity inhabiting the senior management ranks. As the title of my thread states, CX requires a complete cleansing.