Imagine that! Actually expecting pilot applicants to be able to fly an aircraft to a certain standard. Outrageous!

I have a few mates in Cathay training, and the 20% pass rate for the sim is confirmed.

The ability/experience level of the applicants for the current package is abysmal, and it's no wonder. All they can attract now are misfits and desperados, or pilots from countries with highly questionable logbooks and licences.

The trainers/checkers are quite rightly putting their foot down, and demanding the same standards as Cathay used to have.

They would rather see Cathay go down the swanny, which is where it's headed, than be directly or indirectly responsible for a hull loss, which is where it's also headed.

Karma is a biatch.

Do they reply in the given time frame (I was said expect an update after 2-3 weeks) after sending them the training documents??

Yes, they told me in 2 weeks and in two weeks they responded to me

same here. Assessment for October

FYI…

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/h...-b1108017.html

I just got invited for the DEFO interview at Cathay as well. I am currently an FO for a major airline in Canada and have a stay at home wife and a few kids. Based on the responses it seems that it will be hard to afford living in Hong Kong with a family as a Cathay FO. Does anyone have experience moving with family for the FO job? Thanks!

Astonishing one in 5 can pass a B777 screening.
Have they sold the Classic 747 sims?

Fire it up and let them prove their mettle on a real airplane!

Basically if you have a wife and kids, wife not working, paying for expat schooling - I think you'll be on struggle street; you'll never get on the HK housing ladder first of all; just look at rental costs for a modest 3 bedder in Tung Chung it'll easily set you back 30k HKD pm, so what's the whole point in coming to HK as an expat? You can't afford to buy an apartment in HK (this will be your retirement nest egg) and when you head back to Canada when you retire you won't have a house there neither. Just imagine that, worked your whole life till 65 and nothing to show for it, welcome to the new reality of living on COS18.

What 3 bedroom in TC are you referring too? It must be the 3 bed/one bath. As the H/A apartments are still valued at about $10M. Repayments will still set you back about $35000 per month.

The pension is woefully low. To the point that if one retires in Hong Kong, 10 years of pension money will last them 2 years at best.

The property you buy in HK, you’ll sell when you leave and buy a house in your home country when you retire, that’s how it’ll have to work if you are to come to HK. Unless this Canadian DEFO rents in HK for life and mortgages a place in Canada simultaneously.

FYI almost all property in HK is leasehold, all the leases expire in 2047. Then 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for the honest reply. Guess I will need to cross Cathay off the list. Are Middle East airlines (Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, etc.) any better for expats with families? Canada is getting very expensive and pilots (especially FOs) make poverty wages here.

Hey folks, what can I expect at the interview, first stage?

some questions about stuff

I never stated it’s a get rich quick. I know how investing works. But when the funds available in the provident fund are junk. My timeline was, 10 years in provident fund from CX will give you about $100K-$150 HKD per year, so that’s about at best $1.5M, that’s without investing, let’s assume an 80% return over the 10 years, that leaves you shy of $3 mill. Like I said, at best 2 years living in Hong Kong. Maybe 3 years

Also the property I stated is enough of a decent size (by Hong Kong standards), in the cheapest complex in the cheapest suburb

The biggest thing with CX is the "IF's" you might be able to make it work IF the flying increases as they try to get the flying schedule back to 2019 levels IF they don't change the min hours which determines how much $$$ you make IF they don't decide to change anything else which is ALL at their discretion as its policy not a CBA.
You are obviously an FO at with WS or AC, there have been lots of Canadian pilots at CX going in the exact opposite direction to what you are looking at, Captain and FO's (myself included). However apply go have a look at HK and make your own mind up, just remember at WS or AC you have a Union with a CBA written in stone that if gets messed with you file a grievance with an arbitrator in HK you have none of that its all at the company's whim, so what you sign up for you may lose a month later.
And if you think Canada is expensive go have a walk around a HK grocery store and look for the stuff your kids eat.
Good luck to you.

You are not invested with 1.5 over 10 years, it slowly builts up over time. So 80% of 1.5 M is very optimistic, more like half of that, if you are lucky.

DDDO got it right, the problem is the uncertainty. Tough call to move without knowing what to expect financially.

There are plenty of returning captains to cx who previously left for whatever reason .
What’s their motivation if its so bad, and the salary is so poor?

I hear the current cx overtime can push up the monthly salary of senior captains to over $250hk per month? Ok , you work for it , just saying it’s achievable.

Don't just base your life on the basic salary. Its a package, and overtime forms a large part (sometimes. !)

Jesus, ok so over 400 CN left and around 30 have come back. And that sounds like plenty returning???????

I don't have the very latest Mercer cost of living index in front of me but they specialise in telling companies how much tp pay someone living in one country when they move them to another as an expat. And they charge a lot for it.
Last time I looked at the 2019 Index, based on a couple with two kids, Hong Kong was 1.61 times as expensive as Vancouver or Toronto to live. I'm not talking moving from Richmond or Burlington to eat cup noodles in 700 sq ft !!!!!hole on Cheung Sha Island, I'm talking having the same equivalent lifestyle. The cost of living in Hong Kong is far greater than the tax difference between Canada and Hong Kong or Australia and Hong Kong. Guys just see the Net salary, and have no idea at all about the actual cost of living.
Having said that, it amazes me how many out there are riding the bus everywhere, feeding their family the cup noodles, missing out on extended family and friends back home, and telling themselves the place and package is still the greatest. The delusion is remarkable. They can't bear the thought that they signed up for CX all those years ago, the package has drastically changed, and they've stuck their head in the sand as the solution. And seniority lists make the decision absolute, you can't slot into a 330 CN job at QF or a 787 CN job at AC and all your mates who decided to stay at their legacy carriers rather than take that CX job offer have in hindsight, in 2023, made the better decision.
Every time I'm in an aircrew immigration queue anywhere, every other airline pities us, offers condolences and feels sorry for us for what our package has become.