After following this thread for over a year, to put it ALL together in one ball, this is what I consider to be the iCadet program. Please note in no way am I degrading or promoting this program, just a keen observer pointing out some facts.
You finish your training in ADL after the time of your course, 61 weeks for ab-initio, 30 weeks for advanced with more than 250hrs and a CPL, 12 weeks for transition with ATPLs + 1500hrs. During these times you will be getting an allowance of AUD$100 a week.
Children's Education Allowance
Officers with the rank of First Officer or higher and living in HK are paid a children's education allowance. This equates to 50% of education costs for children aged 3 -4 years. For children aged between 5 and 18 years attending a recognized International School in HK, Cathay will reimburse 75% of the rate for the International School, or 90% of the rate for ESF schools (Primary or Secondary, as appropriate) in HK, whichever rate is the higher.
Retirement/Provident Fund
Cathay Pacific contributes the equivalent of 15.5% of its officer's salary into the Provident Fund. Officers may also elect to transfer the benefit entitlements from previous employment to the Provident Fund.
Travel and Rebated Cargo Benefits
After the applicable qualifying period, concessional travel on Cathay Pacific and most other major arilines will be available to officers and their spouses. Officer's parents will also enjoy discounts of Cathay Pacific flights. In addition, employees are entitled to a bookable free return no-subload ticket of a Cathay Pacific flight each year. Rebated Cargo is a staff benefit offered for staff to ship cargo at a discounted freight charge.
Loss of Licence Insurance
Cathay Pacific insures the Officer's flying licence to a maximum of 24 months salary.
Death Benefit
Cathay Pacific insures for the death of an officer equivalent to the sum of 60 months' salary.
Medical and Dental Benefits
The medical scheme covers consultations, medication, surgery and hospitalisation charges at a company appointed panel of doctors and at recommended hospitals. The dental plan is an optional benefit which provides access to comprehensive dental care in HK. You may select from a choice of three dental clinics and the specific treatments and procedures that are covered under the plan. Such benefits may also be extended to your spouse and dependants.
Travel Insurance
This optional benefit pays for loss of cash or personal belongings, the cancellation of a pre-paid holiday or unexpected medical treatment anywhere in the world for you, your spouse and dependants.
Critical Illness Insurance
This optional insurance will pay a cash benefit if you are diagnosed with a critical illness.
Income Protection Insurance
This optional insurance provides up to 50% of your salary if you become disabled and are unable to work for an extended period.
Housing Allowance
HKD$10,000
As an SO, you will be given a P2X rating on the aircraft you fly. The training that SOs are given for their P2X rating includes everything a new FO would receive, except they are not given base training (takeoff and landing training in the real aircraft), since they are only allowed to operate at altitudes of 10,000ft or above.
SOs log their P2X hours with this:
(flight time - 1.5 hours) divided by 2 for an ultra-long haul flight (4 crew), and (flight time - 1.5 hours) times two thirds for a three-crew flight.
SOs are on the B744, B773ER, A340 and A330
Airbus SOs do a cross crew qualification course which allows them to operate A330 and A340 after a year on the A340
B744 SOs can do a difference course to operate on both pax and freight versions
Not sure any more about “TEMP BASES for SOs”, anyone want to shed some info on that?
Upon upgrade to JFO you will start off by doing short haul sectors, basically doing duties of a FO for less pay.
Rough figures for a 1st year SO:
Income: $398148
Taxation
Tax free Threshold (Single):$108000
1st 40000 2%: $800
2nd 40000 7%: $2800
3rd 40000 12%: $4800
Remainder ($170148) 17%: $28925 (excluding Hourly Duty Pay, 13th month & Profit Share)
Total: $37325
Provisional Tax (First year only & depending when you start in Hong Kong): $41057
Gross tax: $78382 (19.7% of gross salary)
Net salary: $319766 or $26647 per month
Spending/month
Rent: $5000 (on top of $10,000 allowance which makes it $15,000)
Food: $4000
Home Phone: $500
Mobile: $120
Internet: $200
Electricity: $1000
Gas: $300
Water: $150
Public Transport: $1000
Miscellaneous: $3000
Total: $15270
To settle all the debates and arguments regarding this iCadet program, the reason why all the current CX pilots are so against this is because CX has a history for changing T&Cs when they see fit. To make sure you all understand, the A scalers back in the day used to get good pay, good packages (like one free annual first class ticket for each family member). Then new joiners were not offered these “very good” T&Cs, meanwhile the current ones didn’t complain but CX changed their T&Cs to the newer lower ones. I don’t need to be a 20 year CX pilot to see how things have changed.
These were all just rough figures and are in no way exact representations. Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, and add any more points that I may have missed.
That’s it folks there you have it
. Think long and hard about all the factors before considering the iCadet program, especially those with spouses or kids or lots of flying experience.