Still dont see the point? Cathay didn't make this move because they wanna welcome people to join their big family...they make this move because they welcome people to come and save money for the company.
Cathay is suppose to be a symbol of Hong Kong and should be supporting local employment...but they've just taken away the only thing HK wannabe pilots dream about by bringing in outsiders. Do u know why Taiwanese and Singaporian locals dont feel too worried about not getting a job back at their home country? Its because their very own country airline support local pilot cadetship. Im not saying Cathay should convert into a 100% local pilot airline...but at least...give those locals better chance by closing the competition to only the HKers.
cathay is indeed meant to be the symbol of hong kong. but that doesn't mean they are exempt from trying to save costs. like i said before, running an airline is all about maximizing profits by either increasing profits or reducing costs, or both. in the light of such a poor economy, i'd say cost cutting is much more feasible towards helping the airline survive. this is a fact, whether you like it or not. you may still be in dreamland about how cathay serves hong kong, how they work for the benefits of the hong kong youths who wants to be pilots, etc... but at the end of the day, you have to look at the reality. if they don't look at cost-cutting measures, how will they survive?
you mentioned how singapore and taiwan can afford to close people out from other nationalities. i don't think you can compare singapore/taiwan to the situation in hong kong. for a myriad of reasons, a lot less people in hong kong are interested in aviation than in singapore and taiwan. if cathay only recruits out of hong kong, how are they going to get a substantial amount of cadets in to start saving up the bucks? for this reason it is sensible for cathay to open up their money-saving cadetship to candidates around the world, because the more cadets they recruit, the more money they save in aircrew renumeration in the long run.
People say it is not a competition...in fact what job out there doesn't have competition? What interview doesn't have competition? What u trying to tell me is to believe Cathay recruitment process is not consider competition BECAUSE IT IS CATHAY? Think about it this way...you go and apply for a job in XX company...and at the same time other people applied...at the end u didn't get the job...do u think u didn't get the job because u didn't meet XX company standard? Or u think the company took a person better than u?
If u think it is because u didn't meet company standard...then maybe Cathay should just publish a personal standard checklist (they should if it is all about standards) and u just tick the box and make sure u meet the standards so Cathay could take u in without a question. And if they dont...then maybe it is really competition...
let's put it this way.
cadet pilots save money because they are given local contracts that exempt the company from paying large sums of money for housing/educational/medical allowances. therefore cadet pilots have a higher priority in recruitment over a DESO/DEFO. this is evident as you can see, the Direct Entry pilot recruitment has closed while cadets are still being recruited.
whether you believe it or not, cathay will actually want more cadet pilots. if you meet the criteria, you can get trained. as long as you are good enough to fly their planes, why would they kick you? this is a cost-cutting exercise that benefits the company in the long run. there will be new aircraft coming into the cathay fleet, all of which need pilots. aircrew ranks will still have its normal cycle of attrition, with old pilots retiring or resigning or whatever. new pilots will still be needed. if these new pilots were all put on local contracts (i.e. these pilots were ex-cadets), do you think the company would save a lot of money on the long run?
comprende?
you are right when you said that rejected applicants would think the company selected someone better than themselves. this was the case for me. but had my competitor and i made the grade together, we would have both become cathay pilots at the same date.