Nothing in the kitty
 

On Friday I had the pleasure of having my lunch ( tuna and tomato sandwich and ginger ale ) sitting opposite a young woman who has recently joined CX from EK to improve pilot recruitment. She asked if I was a pilot (yes) and what fleet (777). I didn't know CX had 777's was her reply. I thought CX only operated Airbus. No I said that is Cathay Dragon. I reruit for them too was her answer. I bet you are struggling to meet your cadet quotas I asked. Yes she said and asked me for any suggestions. You get what you pay for I said. Up the package being offered and your numbers will improve and then tackle the many other issues to retain the pilots. We can't up the package she said "there isn't any money in the kitty for that". Pity I said because thats what it will take to get numbers rising. By the way why did you leave EK to join CX I asked. Her answer " a better package of course ".

Thus demonstrating the extreme naivety of the people tasked to fix this mess.....

Also demonstrating the fact that we are faced with either a long, dedicated, committed fight, or leaving for more sane and stable pastures. If you are under 45, not much to debate as to which is probably your better bet. It is obvious that CX is desperately stonewalling in hopes of some economic shock, that they can then use to justify paying nothing. That seems to be their (only) strategy. My two FO's on this weeks long haul were both leaving imminently, so the message has well and truly got through. CX is toast.

Funny, there always seems to be plenty in the kitty for management pay and bonuses. Curious. Seriously, we are being taken for a ride. Every single one of us (and our families as well). They have effectively decided to simply ignore our demands. They realise the airline is cratering from the inside with an uncontrollable resignation rate, but they are pinning their hopes on the economy turning, an airline or two shutting down and voila, problem solved. In sum, the individual pilots that stay at CX are probably going to suffer a very frustrating and unsatisfying career. The current hiring boom will not last forever, and in the meantime many of our colleagues are securing themselves on other seniority lists, and building a buffer beneath them month by month. The time to leave is now. Otherwise, prepare to suffer the inevitable frustration of being trapped for years in this situation.

I would be curious to know if this young woman was recruited on expat terms or some form of HKPA?

At risk of thread drift, did the boffins in Fuel Hedging make the most of the low fuel prices to hedge at $40 so that we can win on fuel costs for the next 4 years? Might put some money in the kitty to improve the lot of people other than the Leaders.

I didn't ask her about her terms but the "package" was better than at EK she said.

Nothing in The Kitty ?
 

Must be a little bit left as someone had to pay for the Unconscious Bias training and the time spent shepherding in the new "Diversity and Inclusion" programs.

Somebody please tell me I'm not dreaming this ???

Read a book by Orwell if you want answers..

Hardly surprising as every cabin crew thinks the 747 retired from cx a couple of years ago. I wounder if the new talent acquisition know our fleet or size.

They are not hoping for that since that would affect revenue and bonuses. Probably has more to do with simple human procrastination to deal with a tough issue.

I do have a question for all those predicting hard times for CX ahead. If you go read a lot of the investor analysis for Cathay you will see very little in the way of talk about industrial relations. Most of the reports I have read usually refer to the hedging, overall costs, HKA competition, Mainland competition, etc. The small amount of mention about employee relations are often in reference to their long-term restructuring program to trim costs (i.e. cut direct labor costs). Obviously it's a different story from the pilots working there. I am very curious what some of you guys think about this discrepancy between those "in the trenches" and the financial analysts that measure or predict company performance.

A recent interviewee of the new joint process (European low cost Captain, 10K hours, trainer) kept on being asked about the CX contract compliance. Her answer was that it didn't interest her as she had applied to KA. The interviewers couldn't understand why she didn't prefer to work for CX. She didn't get the job.

Many years ago, strong rumours abounded of recruiters knocking back guys with C-130 time in favour of applicants with C-152 time because the bigger number would naturally indicate a bigger aircraft and greater experience.
This company has a long and prestigious heritage to maintain, why change now?

True story. Back when CX had an another "genius" idea to hive off the freighter network and hire pilots from the street to crew it (ASL). Thing is, there was a bit of a boom in aviation at the time, so anyone out of work was out of work for a reason. Needless to say, questionable individuals with completely clueless recruiters resulted in, shall we say, some "interesting" recruits. Another epic "own goal" from CX management. Seems like they want to relive those days once again.

Nothing in the Kitty...? Soon there will be nothing in the cockpit either.

Quite often your point view is right on about a lot of the industry. Fallible as they may be, executives still care quite a bit abo.ut what the analysts who cover their company are saying. If you could get some of those analysts to make the connection about what is going on in the trenches with you guys.... and that poor industrial relations can lead to things like Eastern Airlines...

The sadness is that she saw absolutely no problem or felt the need to mediate her comment.

Right now, down under Qantas has yet another operation designed to circumvent exiting terms and conditions, it is called Network Aviation. It was a few decades ago a charter operator with a C99 and a few other twins.
It is now an A320 operator in Qantas colours no less in YPPH.

At the regular headfest, the HR management asked the operations people about why the 'package' fails to attract sufficient interest and they are always politely reminded that their JQ DHC 8 operation in NZ, Jetconnect and indeed Cobham contracts (of which Qantas own the aircraft) have similar problems: remuneration.

The circularity of their stupidity is simply because for the last three decades, supply of pilots outstripped demand. Therefore HR/IR got lazy and incidentally wealthy stripping salary out of pilot's pocket.
They will do everything, before doing the right thing and restoring remuneration to the point where the skillset, cost and time taken to acquire are adequately compensated. Many circular 'meetings remain...

Has anyone else been approached about taking early retirement ?
I was asked informally last week if I would be "interested".
I asked "on what terms?" and was told a package might be in the pipeline.

Without giving too much away, roughly on which page of the seniority list would you be, unitedabx?

Wind up alert. Critical levels for STCs and you say they are offering redundancy to the group that contains them?

Maybe it's just you unitedabx?

Some people have been asked, some have not.

First page, top 20.

No it's not just me and I can't accept anything anyway due family issues. BUT two more of my era have been asked ( informally ) the same question. CX did this before and culled about 100 skippers. It makes financial sense and frees up advancement form RHS to LHS and into C&T.
One months pay for every year over 10 years served plus 3 months severance. All tax free and retirement staff travel immediately. If you have 25 years plus in the company and less than 3 years to go it makes perfect sense.

If you are a little younger you might want to take it and move somewhere else to finish your career. The company doesn't want expensive captains anymore. They save on housing, schooling, medical, pension for a payout they would have made anyway.

I only wish I was in a position to take it.

For some it is a golden ticlket out and I am told it will be offered soon.

Sounds similar to the SVS (or whatever it was called) in the mid to late 90s - can't remember how many took it then.

Top 20, eh? Only 4 are based, so I guess the rest would indeed be expensive, dollar-wise. And that is just typical, getting rid of the experience that this airline flying club so desperately needs.

...the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.

With the airline contracting, it makes perfect sense to offer redundancy to the most expensive crew it employs. This would not include based pilots only HKG since the savings are in housing, schooling, pension and medical. The new GMA is no stranger to this concept. In the cull of last summer the packages offered to the expats was "generous". Long term it makes sense and is common practice in the corporate world. Watch this space.

Or mayyyybe it's just a good rumour to spread to keep senior guys around a little longer...

They can put any redundancy package where the sun doesn't shine. Not for sale at any Swire price. I am enjoying costing them the maximum I can, each and every month.

Totally understand your stance AirProfit BUT if you were offered 3 years pay (tax free) and had 5 years to serve before retirement which would you take ?Do the maths and you are thousands ahead if you take the deal plus out of this outfit 2 years early. This offer IF made will be to every captain over 50. For some it will make no sense. To others it might be the incentive to leave early and for many it will be the golden handshake they will never get if they plod on to 55/65.
Would you really give up the chance of some tax free cash up front simply to be able to continue sticking it to a company that couldn't give a sh++t what you do.

I'm with Air Profit. If it's not a generous offer, there is no chance of accepting it. I'd rather cost the maximum possible for my remaining years. The day's of being bought off cheaply by this mob are over.