Firstly, there are lot of people interested in aviation in hong kong. there are lot of people self sponsered to get the license. but what is the result? most of the people are flying in GA or airline in overseas. don't they want to get in CX? they have tried but kicked out by CX with unknown reason. if you guys say if you met the standard, you would get in. so how come there are lot of people kicked out by CX? don't they know how to fly the aircraft? what is the most important duty of pilot? It is safe to fly to the destination. I think they have shown, otherwise they don't even get a job in overseas.
there are two things you must understand.
1. you may be suitable to be a pilot but it does NOT mean you are suitable to become a cadet. being a cadet pilot for an airline like cathay or singapore means you are being fast-tracked into operating a jet aircraft, which is something that anyone else would only achieve after thousands of hours of experience in GA or turboprop RPT. this also means that you must be able to learn at a quicker rate and be able to produce the exact result and show the same maturity that your expatriate colleague may have taken thousands of hours to learn. that is why many people who were rejected by CX for their cadet program end up flying in GA and eventually join airlines elsewhere. capiche?
2. i want to apologize for speaking like the CX flight recruitment ALWAYS get things right. in fact, they do not, which is quite normal because nothing is perfect. they have, at times, recruited unsuitable people who in the end, just waste company resources because they were unable to achieve the required standard. because of this possible error in recruitment, i am sure they would rather be more cautious in their approach. obviously if they are sure you can get in, then you do. but if there is any shred of doubt, my guess is that they would rather leave you out than take you. for that reason, perhaps you feel you may have made the grade, but then again... you could have failed for a myriad of reasons. that's just how the game is played.
I believe Cathay Pacific doesn't symbolize Hong Kong Airline at all. It's found by an Australian and an American who started an airline based in Hong Kong.
Even now, most upper level managers are not even Chinese... So what makes it a Hong Kong Airline? I believe CX wanted to hire cadets from foreign country for the longest time.
"ps, lots of cadets are Eurasian, or ABC (American born chinese),or CBC (Canadian born chinese) anyways...'
cathay pacific, as pointed out by misu11, definitely is the airline of Hong Kong, for the reasons he/she pointed out. however one must remember that cathay pacific is OWNED by Swire, which is a very british company. need i say more?
As your mentioned, lot of cadets are ABC or CBC. but the point is, they have HK
PR ID card. At least they or their family had contribution in Hong Kong. But now, what is the contribution with these international cadet? I can say, have you ever been in hong kong?
If CX want to save money, why don't CX follow QF or other airline? pay part of their own training fee. even though people pay their training fee, I would say lot of hong kong wannabe will still go.
the contribution for these expatriate cadets is that they are willing to fly these aircraft for a minimal wage.
i am sure that if CX wanted people to pay for (part of) their own training then a lot less hong kong locals would show up. given the price of flight training (flying costs, equipment, accomodation, medicals, visas, you name it) the average hong kong family would not be able to afford such an expensive endeavour. which is why the cathay cadetship is so attractive to people in the first place.
In austraila, you guys have other step to fly in GA, but what's about in hong kong? We don't have such opporunity to fly GA in Hong Kong. We have to find the job in overseas. Would we have same equal opporunity with the local to get a job in overseas?
to be honest, if you are not a local australian, applying for a job here is close to impossible. and that goes for any decent job, not just flying ones. as for local flying jobs in hong kong, the cathay cadetship is still open to those who are able to get in. what has changed?
If there are more and more interviewees, they are all met the standard. would you think they don't do any selection? the cake has limited in size, but more people to eat, the chance to eat will be smaller.
I wouldn't think to this way, but CX expats pilot want their kids to get in CX, but actually they are not HK
PR, so they may change the policy to accept anyone in whole world to put their kids in.
look at the future. the economy follows a cyclic pattern, as you may already know. while we are in recession now, with flights being grounded and pilots not needed, the economy will eventually pick up. aircraft will be delivered and these will need good pilots to fly them. as i mentioned in an earlier post, if cathay could employ them all on a local contract then it would help them save money. this is, in fact, baking more cakes for all those wannabes out there, right?
i suspect the children of expat pilots in HKG are the last thing cathay are thinking about right now.