cathay is hong kong's flagship airline but that doesn't mean they are a charity organization.
for those of you who have no idea how an airline runs, take a long, hard look at what is happening now. in airlines all around the world, everything is about COST CUTTING. its a basic yet vital principle that decides which airline can live through the night and which shrivel up and die. all airlines do it, from LCCs to premium carriers, though their measures vary for obvious reasons. cathay is no exception. it does not matter how much marketing you do or what kind of image your carrier has amongst the locals. if you do not put cost-cutting as an important priority, you will lose money. that is a fact.
as some have pointed out earlier, cathay can save bucketloads of cash by employing more pilots on local contracts. since cathay cannot seem to find enough people in HKG who are interested (and able) to become cadets they are starting to look all over the globe.
as for cadet applications, i don't feel anyone has a priority over anyone else. as i pointed out earlier, it doesn't matter who your fellow candidates are, where they come from or how many of them there are. if you're good enough, you'll make it.
IMHO the point of the new cadet program is to train new pilots from scratch, or from very low hours onwards. the program wouldn't be aimed at recruiting experienced expatriate pilots with thousands of hours, simply because the terms and conditions on offer wouldn't be attractive. i guess cathay want to find people with limited levels of flying experience, so:
1. they wouldn't mind a lower pay check in exchange for the chance to fly a jet
2. ab-initio or low hour pilots would have a better reception of cathay SOPs and company culture acceptance
as for Qantas... australia is brimming with low-hour pilots, most of which are devoid of job-hunting opportunities due to the economic recession. even when the economy wasn't that bad, we still had a sufficient amount of pilots to fly the punters around. why would QF or any australian airline need to recruit people from overseas when there are so many local people who would love to (and are able to) have a shot at flying their jets?
Last edited by holdmetight; 18th Jun 2009 at 11:37.