Conan:
Quote: >>The reason that we have only started taking Chinese pilots recently is one of economics. There were no Chinese pilots with licences in Hong Kong, and there fore it was expedient to recruit foreign Pilots who were already trained( The usual requirements were Previous Command on heavy Jets and at least 5000 hours Plus) Times have changed !!! so have the requirements.<<
You are only partially correct. I guess you have not been around long enough to know it. The reason why there was no licensed HK Chinese pilots in Hong Kong was because the HK CAD (under British rule) would not issue a CPL or ATPL unless the pilot was offered employment by one of the local airlines, and CX was the only one at that time. In the 70’s and early 80’s, a few HK Chinese obtained their UK CAA licences but was rejected by CX due their lack of experience. At that time, CX was only hiring pilots with either the experience or have the right connections to the company. Fortunately, those few HK Chinese pilots later found employment with other Asian carriers such as SQ and CAL.
The first “Chinese” pilot was hired by DragonAir in the mid 80’s (may be 1986? Sorry, my memory is leaving me!!). He is actually an Australian of Chinese origin. Perhaps someone here can verify it, I heard a rumour that there were a few Chinese pilots in the very early days of CX. Those few actually left on their own and went “back” to China or Taiwan. One of the reasons why CX didn’t hire any Chinese pilots was because the old CX management was afraid that a Chinese pilot might hijack a CX aircraft and fly it to China. I know that sounded stupid but that was the worry back in the 50’s till the 70’s. In the early 80’s, the Thatcher government agreed to revert HKG back to China. All the big Hongs and the HK government had to localize their staff and that’s when CX started the cadet pilot programme.