The problems with KA do not seem to be comprehended fully at CX.
The CX DFO, repeating earlier words of Tony Tyler wrote yesterday "The long term plan for Dragonair remains unchanged - the aim is to grow the airline as a regional, short-haul operator in China and Asia with a
complementary route network to Cathay Pacific".
That is a problem, not a positive.
Many crew came to Dragonair (eg ex-Ansett) when they knew they could be based in Australia and would operate the A330 on basings. That was shot down after the take-over by Tyler.
In the year and a bit since that plan was terminated they have seen:
- Godawful, arrogant, head-in-the-sand and dismissive management getting amazingly worse (the only management mantra being 'if you don't like it f***-off).
-Stressful and tiring, repetitive flight operations into horrible destinations.
- Abysmal rostering practices (the GMO & GMA are only partly responsible for that, the buffoon who runs the section should have been dismissed many years ago). Productivity may not look good on paper to new owners but the stresses on families of being exhausted has been telling.
- Associated huge increases in divorces.
- Pollution killing their families at a faster (if you could believe it) rate than before.
- Plummeting US/HK Dollar (meaning they are far worse off if expatriates).
- Complete lack of company interest in improving T&C.
- Foolish set-up of 747-400 basing policy (GMO, against directives and the pilot union stance paid less than his Manchester base and has destroyed the operation - so many pilots have walked they face sidelining a newly delivered airframe, is this some perverse joke?).
What a way to run a business.
But CX need to be clear, removing the GMO and a few minions is only a small percentage of the problems that need to be addressed.
Even if the haemorraging of aircrew stopped today (it won't, the momentum is there now and the corporate advice of 'if you don't like it f***-off' has been heeded) KA faces a grim future.
Globally amongst professional pilots, KA (and increasingly HK) now has an appalling name and whilst CX may still attract pilots to their operation because of the attractiveness of bases, seconding them to KA will not appeal to pilots any more.
There is a great deal of work needed at KA, telling pilots they will be confined to pergatory forever as per the above missive is not a good start.