Very old China hand. I served Cathay for over 30 years. For three decades, I had a front row seat to a never ending stream of cost efficiencies which manifested themselves in two ways: cuts to pay and benefits and cuts to operational expenses.
Pilot pay and benefits were constantly on the chopping block and cut with the regularity of an atomic clock. As lower pay packages attracted fewer and fewer real pilots recruitment standards were reduced. All the while, senior management would proclaim that no change to the legendary “Cathay Standard” was occurring. In fact, even long after experienced pilots were no longer being hired and untrained pilots with zero flight time were instead being hired off the street, senior Cathay managers continued to pretend that they were still able to attract top pilot talent. It was bizarre.
The ultimate effect was obvious to those on the flight deck. There were cuts to minimum training requirements, cuts to crew experience levels, cuts to minimum crewing levels; and once stringent flight time limitations were being manipulated. To top it all off was the rostering system that used flight time limits as performance targets, rather than “only when necessary” as intended by the law governing the limitations. It became alarming to witness the constantly diminishing standard on the flight deck. Multiple letters from the Cathay trainers, who went on the record to warn management about real safety concerns, were ignored; or the safety risks assessed as manageable. I know, because I had a hand in writing them.
In your last post you said, “Given all of the circumstances Cathay overall treated its staff far better than did most of its major competitors but unavoidably there were causalities and some will never get over what they perceive as Cathay ruining their lifestyle and prospects while the vast majority have accepted the unavoidable and got on with life.”
You write with sincerity and I have no doubt that you are firm in your convictions as a business man, and let me say that I heard the same sentiment each time cuts were imposed. It was the same rationale used to fire 49 pilots in 2001. A seminal act of cruelty that would not have been tolerated in any other civilized business environment. All the casualties that you speak of were real people. People with families, obligations, and years and years of sweat equity spent honing their pilot skills. People with everything invested in Cathay and in Hong Kong. By any modern business or human standard you don’t just get to rationalize writing people off as an unnecessary business expense in a manner as if their lives didn’t matter. Certainly not since Dickens.
And this is what I’m trying to get across to you. Yes hard business decisions are sometimes necessary. But from my perspective, Cathay was never able to carry them out with any real finesse, or with a human touch. Instead changes were always heavy handed and arbitrarily imposed with an axe. With seemingly little thought or concern to the pain and misery it caused to the very people that once made Cathay the great airline it was. You may disagree, but this is what it felt like to those of us on the receiving end.
I choose to resign 18 months ago, after 30 years and nearing my retirement age of 65. Once again, with the finesse of a slap across the face, I was given three choices: Endure another in a long series of pay cuts by signing a new “contract”; be fired; or resign. I asked if I could continue for a few months until normal retirement on my current conditions but was flatly refused. So I choose Option 3 and resigned. I gave three months notice, packed up my family and left. A clerk oversaw my release and walked me to the door. Just another example of the lack of human touch, the lack of people skills, I referred to earlier.
In any case, do with my words as you please. It is with great sadness that the once legendary Cathay Pacific Airways has fallen into its current state.. I wish you luck in its rebuilding. Hopefully it will be successful with better people management skills.