Tony "Swire for Life" Tyler
Tinker Tyler
Did my reader perchance see that time-serving streak of piss, Tony "Swire for Life" Tyler on the news at the weekend? What an embarrassment that man is to Hong Kong! Whining, whinging and wringing his hands, like Alex Ferguson after losing a football match; a little Hong Kong spirit would do him the world of good, but then if he had that he wouldn't have spent his entire working life in the comfort of a Hong.
Tyler's reported comments included the following.
Tony Tyler said Friday the airline has a "toxic" combination of low fares, a fall in first- and business-class travel, weak cargo loads and poor yields.
In other words, sales are soft. First everything was a "tsunami", now it's "toxic". Put a label on it, and cower behind the label along with every other incompetent, why don't you, Tony? Whatever you do, do not for a second consider that you are in a business where your customers' spending is discretionary and it is part of your ckufing job to manage that - to sell - in exchange for the bloated salary you draw. This may come as a suprise to you, but every business has to make sales; there's nothing "toxic" about that requirement.
"There's no visibility on how long this will last ... This makes it more challenging than anything I've experienced," Mr. Tyler said.
Oh, FFS! How pathetic can you get? If you've got no idea what's going on, say so. And then take a view like every other businessman has to every day, on costs, demand, prices, and - like them - get on with things. No one has told poor Tony exactly how long he is going to have to make excuses for. Aaah! Give him the Swire crystal ball to sit on.
He said he saw no signs of a recovery in demand at the moment, adding the airline will consider taking "further steps" to cut costs if necessary.
Excellent - build up that old excuses inventory, Tone. If you fluke a good result, you can say you overcame the problems; if you don't, your excuse is already in place.
Tyler says, "We anticipate an extremely challenging year in 2009."
That's bold - the year is only one third over and already you have some idea how it is going to turn out. Visionary! Except for that unfortunate "no visibility" admission earlier, and ...
Mr Tyler says that, unlike many of its competitors, Cathay Pacific gets no government financial support or subsidy.
We're being a little economical with the truth here, Tone, are we not? All Hong Kong government employees, including TCS and InvestHK who do a shedload of travelling, are obliged to fly Cathay when on business, but perhaps you do not count that part of taxpayers' money being compelled to go into the Cathay bank account as financial support. In that case, if I whinge nicely, could I have some of that non-financial support too?