Higher level managers at CX invariably use the airline as a mere stepping-stone for promotion within the Swire system. As a result they make short-term decisions which make them look good even if these decisions are detrimental to the company as a whole over the longer term.
Aircrew on the other hand will invariably stay with our airline for decades and have a far longer-term perspective of what is beneficial to the health of the airline - if at times a little unrealistic.
It is of course easy to make silly comments like GreatWay To Fly "The best part of this is that the pilot body in CX itself....looking after their self interest" but these are invariably created by jealousy, myopia or a combination of both.
A decision to employ 'cheap foreign labour' is difficult to criticise without drawing howls of indignation based on political correctness and claims of attitudes of colonial superiority.
However it MUST be said that this exercise of attempting to employ aircrew external to the standard mechanism of recruiting younger pilots, training them within our culture of the CX system and allowing them to acquire skill and knowledge over time is pure folly.
It is a typical short-term, knee-jerk reaction to a problem which our management has brought on itself. Combined with the significant cultural anomalies which (according to Flt International research) are THE most significant factor in Human Factors related accidents today, Cathay has created a potential minefield.
By bypassing the accepted means of pilot recruitment and experience acquisition CX is now lowering its standards. With lower standards the potential for grave problems increases. Should those problems directly or indirectly cause a 'hull-loss' then who should be to blame? Probably not the manager who made the decision as he will have been promoted elsewhere as a result his short-term managerial genius.
This argument will no doubt be dismissed as scaremongering by some but I would like anybody to show where it is flawed.
So to the CX managers responsible for such short-term sillyness, could I suggest that flight operations can not be run the same way as bottling plants ot property. As laughable as it may be, there ARE things which pilots know about and you guys don't and I believe this decision is one of them.
Perhaps you should look a little more thoroughly at the ramifications of your decisions before you proceed further.
Just a thought.