Cathay's 2007 interim profit
 

I'm a little confused by the interim report. Let me know if I am wrong, but is the 1st half of the year real profit $2,581,000,000 HK dollars which equals approximately $330,000,000 US. I just want to make sure I got it right before I go in for the interview. This is the profit attributable to the shareholder.

Yes, that's correct.

Perhaps you could mention at the interview that as this year's profit is so good, the forthcoming payrise should be spectacular, is that not the case? :D

asapilot, I've got a better idea mate. DON'T GO!!! Save yourself while you still can........................

they will need to use that money when they have to start paying hi leasing costs to other airlines to cover there parked aircraft due to lack of crews!

Swires play hardball but they are not stupid. When all else looks like failing, they will outbid any other airline for crew conditions to protect their investment and what's more, they can afford it!:ok:

Hotdog, i wish i shared your optimisum mate. I think that the shower they call a management team who are running this place are so arrogant they probably don't see anything wrong and whats more probably still think that this is the job all airline pilots strive to acheive. The fact is it's a joke, and arguably now, one of the worst options available in the current market. I agree with you on one thing though, and that is that they can afford to pay more, as they proved by kindly sharing with us the 'record' 6 monthly profits, shortly before delivering the swift kick to the crown jewels, that was Cos08!

qx747pilot,

Second interview. Any and all advice is appreciated.

dustyprops,

Any chance I can get you to elaberate on what you dislike at Cathay. Are you on the Pax or Freight side?

Doesn't matter. Do these guys a favor. Give them the leverage on their pay negotiations by not going. Wait for a better deal and then you can go and see for yourself.

asapilot, all i can say mate is read the forum carefully, and you will easily be able to pick out the issues here. Yes there are people on just to wind others up etc....but i can tell you that i hear alot of the things discussed here, echo'd around the walls of CX City and the flight deck, bar and so on. Not a happy place at all, and if you have got a flying job at present then i am just saying, think very very hard about leaving it to fly a -400, because in the end, it's not worth the agony. It's just an airplane after all!

It all depends on what you want. Coming from a regional myself I can tell you this is much better. Many of the guys complaining never flew an RJ 5 legs a day for $60,000 per year.

Exactly. The fact is this is still a great job compared to many others.
The problem is that in good times when things should be getting better they are not.

I agree, and that is the fight we have now. I think this is still a good place to be, at least from an American perspective. Sure UPS and FedEx pay more but the fact remains they didn't call me and CX did. FedEx is like trying to become a made guy in the Mafia and UPS is hit or miss. What I liked is that I can be a freight dog if I want or move over to the pax fleet down the road. I like to have options.

Oh come on guys! i can't believe i am reading 'i like to have options', and 'it's a great job compared to many others'!!! Who? aeroflot, garuda, Air Gambia maybe? The words great and CX do not go hand in hand. I know multi sector flying is tough, i have seen a bit of it on a 757, but at least you got treated with a bit of respect, and not brainwashed into becoming a 'there's only on way....the Cathay way' type pilot (i use the term very loosely).

Years ago when I was told by cabin crew ( not CX ) that they don't see why we have to get 4 times more money than them cause they are just as responsible for lives as we are I realized it was all over. So DUSTYPROP if you are trying to imply you are going to get more respect elsewhere......:hmm:

we get 4 times more pay, that's a well paid cabin attendant:p

SIC, it doesn't matter whether you are a pilot or a cabin crew member you all got different jobs to do, and should all be treated with the same level of respect as each other. As for the age old arguement of who gets paid what, well that will rumble on and on. Lets face it you could train anybody to fly an airplane, it's not rocket science is it? Same with the Cabin, so the fact that we get paid more is just lucky for us i guess. All i can say is that this mob could learn plenty from other carriers, in a similar league, about looking after the people that go out and fly their planes fo them.

Quote of the millenium from previous post:
Right! Thanks for pointing out that my salary has nothing to do with the fact that it took years of hard work as well as beating out hundreds of others to get a job in a big jet for a top airline. You will be great management material.

and

I guess you are right - its not rocket science - then we'd all be astronauts. However look around you - how many guys that started out flying with you actually made it all the way? I don't think you can train ANYBODY.

Flying's not rocket science, but we don't get paid for that so much as we earn our money when the $#!+ hits the ceiling and the fan's spinning at max rpm. By the way, I don't look half as confused looking around the galley as they do when they come into the flight deck. Takes a little more to figure out an FMS than a cart methinks. I earn what I learn.

Couldn't agree with you more about a company's attitude towards their frontline employees. All of their employees really. How all of us as crew get treated by the upper echelons here is pretty dire across the board. Reminds me of the handbag incident where the company decided not to take 'disciplinary action' against the involved cabin crewmembers after they did a spectacular job of ensuring pax safety and not letting a gold digging heifer get away with it. Respect for their employees' judgement, not to mention trust, is something that should be added to CX's mission statement, right after 'Ensuring safety comes first'.

Ok, sorry for diverging from the thread topic. I'll get back on it.

CX scrooges, you owe ALL of us for that 55%. Pay up already. :*

Lite

Ouch! the daggers are out now, which is exactly why the company has it made, because everybody has to pull together instead of squabbling with each other. Look mate, i am firmly in the same camp as you when it comes to management. They would take every last penny from you and work you 100 hours a month and still tell you that you are priviledged to be working for such a great company, if they could get away with it. As far as i am concerned they leave there uniform at the door when they step inside the office, because they are like nobody i fly with.

As for the subject of who earns what, yeah, i would love to have a 55% pay rise, do think i deserve it...definately. But as for the reason we earn more, well i think it's subjective. You will never convince me that flying is for anyone other than who wants to do it. As for landing the big jet/job, mate you just had hours and did a good interview, same as the rest of us. No room for anyone thinking otherwise. Cockpit's just to small. Cabin crew don't look confused, they just look disinterested when they walk in. Met a cabin crew member (male) at my previous, with 30% burns to their body sustained putting out a galley fire. Who deserves good pay?

I think where you miss the point is that pay generally reflects a level of education/training. Also ability/experience plays a role.
And you can never compare 8 weeks worth of cabin crew training to the amount of education most of us in the pointy end have.

I would love to see the newest recruit in the back who can hardly make coffee earn $50 000 a month - just like me. With the proviso that the CEO / MD and all management then also earn that. OK?

:yuk:
Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Now your talking my language, one pay scale for all. Boy, talk about an ideal world eh? For the record. i'd love to be earning $50,000 a month!!!

Listen i don't want you to think i am knocking your personnal acheivements or anything like that, it's just that i have been an instructor (like the vast majority of us) and trained some very unlikely candidates who now have successful careers, in fact i know two ex cabin crew members who are pilots now with UK based airlines.

I fly because i didn't do very well at school, and it is one of the few jobs where you don't need a degree. My first job after instructing was on a 757 earning a decent whack.Result!! Fair or not, i ain't complaining, but i could have just as easily been cabin crew, just chose differently.

I applaud the spirit of your argument comrade, allow me to chuck my two roubles into the pool:

That last sentence is infallibly true. We all had to fulfill a certain standard to land the job. May I also suggest that it's fair to say that cabin crew don't have to learn about resolution of vectors for converging aircraft scenarios. They certainly have no requirement to identify the uses of a mercator vs. lambert's in order to plot the cart route during any part of their training. I have no doubt that a good percentage of our fellow cabin crew have above and beyond enough noodle to be able to do what we do. Unfortunately the fact remains that, to get where we're at, they have to fulfill those same requirements we did which are decidedly more academic, not to mention far lengthier in process. In my mind I subcribe to your quest for a utopian ideal....equality across the board for all. The only problem is (and this is where Marx and Engels got it really wrong)...we're all human. And we all have an innately biased sense of entitlement. If I had joined the same day as you, same fleet, same pay, and you were doing 24 sectors a month vs. my hypothetical 6, surely you would find that unfair? If not, then I'd say you've just about found your inner buddha.

Um, pretty sure it's confusion. Most of them look like this: :confused: not really this : :rolleyes: But you're probably right, I'm not good at facial interpretation anyway.

p.s. Daggers are not my modus operandi, someone told me they're reserved for 3rd floor candidates. At my level...more likely to use a plastic spoon.

Lite

Hey Lite, Yep, you sum it up better than i do. Undoubtably there are things we know how to do that our lesser paid friends know what to do, but i must admit, i would struggle to plot the position of each BCF extinguisher on the aircraft. I agree that the process you and i and everybody else has been through has been a long one and arduous, but do i feel better qualified than the ISM or any crew member, not really, i wouldn't have the first idea about how to run the show back there, anymore than he/she would know our job. I think you seem like a pretty relaxed kind of guy, and i imagine a good laugh to fly with, but unfortunately there are a few of us who think they have acheived a god like status because they strap an airplane to their rear and go along for the ride. I think it's a shame. Give's the rest of us a bad rap!

Wait a sec...so what you're saying is, I'm not divine?

Frikkin' induction packet, had me duped all this time. I feel violated :suspect:

Ha, you're all right my book Lite. Keep it real mate, it's gotta get better!

Dusty

:zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::zzz::rolleyes:

Made the wrong choice MATE, if you do really fly!:yuk:

Hey Dusty - Sorry I give the rest of you a bad rap cause I feel I have achieved more than a trolley dolley.
Just like Mullah I was REPEATEDLY told that I am in the best airline in the world and that I am therefore the cream of the crop and a member of the elite ( as opposed to some of my buddies that were not good enough for CX and are now EK captains ) :uhoh:

Look boys, everybody is entitled to their opinions and that's just mine. I enjoy flying with 95% of the guys at CX, however there are the minority that think they are something pretty special and treat the whole thing a little to seriously for my liking. electricjetjock, i'm still here, flying, same as you mate, so i don't think i made the wrong career choice, been doing it for 11 years commercially. SIC, i'm not suggesting you personally have given the rest of us a bad rap, I'm just saying some guys do. I've flown with ex builders, policeman, even an ex-milkman, they did just fine. Flying pays me a wage and that's about it for me. For others it's more than that, fair enough. I don't care what job people do, they all get treated the same in my book. You boy's keep doing it your way, i'll do it mine.:)

Hey Dusty - were just winding you up a bit. However don't make the mistake of undervaluing yourself and what you do. And if you do - don't tell the guys who pay you - they might just use it as an excuse for a paycut. Especially since there are guys as good and competent and educated as you and I who fly for US $ 1700 a month..... ( see willflyforfood - its sad )

Hey Tony..........re: 'the Profit'.......GIVE ME MY MONEY

TT's comments regarding Air China......he's laughing in our faces