I read a moronic headline in the SCCP today; Something along the lines of "Hong Kong arrivals to rise 80%" due to the slight relaxation of quarantine restrictions.
Yeah?
Well, +80% of F.A. is still F.A.

Cue the reporter questions: 'Won't this increase the risk of imported cases?'

Yet in the USA companies are realising and recognising that if they don’t pay decent wages they won’t get pilots

A new USregional airline startup, Connect Airlines, is offering a massive salary for direct-entry captains. The airline will offer a $250,000 starting salary to 30 qualified direct-entry Dash-8 captains. It only requires 2,500 hours of total flight time and provides a benefits package and a home every night schedule. The news of this eye-catching salary comes amid a pilot shortage when airlines are struggling to find qualified pilots.

Has anyone heard of Cathay Pacific now requiring new joiners to sign for a training loan ( aka training bond)
Worth $280000 hkd over 36 months?

OF
Then perhaps the US is the place for you sir.
Of course Cathay will one way or another get all of the pilots that it needs and probably you are already aware of this.
If this should involve paying more then this is what will happen.

JJM,

Yes heard this today.

b.

JJM The information that you have posted is substantially incorrect.

It is not completely incorrect voch. I’ve seen it in black and white that the company will provide a loan to cover training costs that must be repaid if a DEFO leaves within three years. That’ll help recruitment.

VOCH,

suggest you respectfully check your sources. JJM is correct.

b.

It’s just a ploy to stop new joiners obtaining a licence and leaving straight away. There’s nothing CX can do legally in HKG to obtain this amount apart from hold back wages/PFUND perhaps.

Same situation with their old “forgivable loan” they used to pay and try and claim back if a pilot left before 5 or 6 years.

most airlines now have a bond, EK is about 45,000USD over a few years too

Yup I am a cadet pilot and this is definitely what management has been saying to us. We have an unforgivable loan bound to us for 5 years which is payable according to an equation management came up with if you leave the company or get terminated "based on company discretion." The loan will take approximately 14,000 HKD (our monthly allowance) per month for the first 3 years which actually adds up to 504,000 HKD total. Half a f*cking million HKD. Even more deductions than the figures provided above. Absolutely ridiculous.

yeah but you didn’t pay a single dollar towards your own training? I’d consider that a pretty good deal unless of course you want to obtain a licence elsewhere at your own cost?

Relative to the old contract where we did not have to repay the training bond the conditions have changed for the worse, much like everyones contract at cx

Gents, I agree that my comment re the original post was perhaps a bit strong although the original post did suggest that a bond was something new which of course it is not.

Not ridiculous enough to deter you from signing up though.

https://simpleflying.com/cathay-paci...cent-increase/

From the article:

"On August 16th, Cathay Pacific released its traffic figures for July 2022, which revealed that the airline carried a total of 219,746 passengers, an increase of 306.2% compared to July 2021 but still 93.3% less than the pre-pandemic level in July 2019. Cathay’s passengerload factor increased by 44.7% to 73.3%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), increased by 74.6% year-on-year, but still 87.6% less than July 2019 levels."

So not only was your 98% load factor all made up (which I think we all knew) and greatly over-exaggerated, but the traffic is still a tiny fraction of pre-covid levels. :ugh:

Your point being exactly what Bokpiel ?
Also the source of your perhaps superior information re loads would be interesting to many of us to know.

???

My point is to correct him, with proof. At least I have a source.

The source of that information isn’t hard to find. The data is published each month on the Cathay Pacific and HKEX websites.
Cathay Pacific July 2022 Traffic Figures

Hmm, so capacity increased from 9 to 12%. Cargo is flat, and passenger travel is “sparking” from HK vacationers and seasonal student travel.

Sounds epic. Where can I buy stock?