Captain earning potential
 

Hi all biit of an open ended question I’m sure with multiple variables. And may require general assumptions.

I’ve seen the Pay scales for Captain 4.

How much more can a pilot make if they are part of the training department at Cathay ?

Is there a path at Cathay where pilots can earn 3 million HKD annually and if so how long could it take ?

Im getting the pop corn.

Me too SOPS. I like the choco flavoured ones. Can't resist though.

Captains earning potential was the only criteria that attracted so many to CX in my day. In that day, winning the "Football pools" meant 75000 quid in the bank and the ambition to "spend,spend,spend".

Temptation was that if you stayed the course and retired from CX, you would probably reach millionaire status (UK pounds).It led many to stay the course.

Mate of mine, in early days as FO, had the same name as one of the Captains. Payslips (that is what they got in those days) were put in the wrong pigeon holes and Matey got Captain's. The former was thinking of quiting, having had enough of the aero club, but when observing the "amount paid" box, thought he had won the pools and stayed for a decade.

Don't ask if he made a million (UK pounds) , Officers & Gentlemen of our background didn't ask what was in our paypackets but he long tired of his Porche as I borrowed to buy my first Talbot Horizon.

While you are at it find out

Why is there air
How long is a piece of string
Why does a dog lick his skro tum
Why is a circle round and a square is not


Good to see there are still people in the industry who like yourself like yourself who focus on the key issue and whats of real interest to the industry

Apologies if I offend anyone..its hot in the south of france

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b735b7f2d0.png
According to the annual report, 402 flight staff (AKA pilots) earned over HKD3m in 2024

Back in the 1980s, if you joined CX stayed to retirement AND left with the same wife you arrived with you could easily leave as a £ sterling millionaire. Whilst these days that amount of money won't get you much more than an average house in London, back then it was serious money.

The pilots had a pretty good financial advisor and the low tax environment certainly helped the A scalers achieve their goals.

And pre covid???

Initially I thought you were a journo but it appears that you have been offered a 321 FO position.

First consideration is that it will take 7-10 years on the 320 to get to captain 4. You can’t plan on keeping the current pay scale, let alone an entire career at this place. Anyone who has been here more than 5 years is on his/her 2nd contract, 15 years or more on the 3rd and 25+ on the 4th or 5th - every contract change results in a pay and benefit cut for the majority of pilots (30-40% in 1997 and 2020).

Also you gotta pass their command course (and trainer course once eligible) as well and the 320 command course pass rate is not that stellar thanks to the ex Dragonair checkers.

KA had crazy command failure rates at times, with an experienced pool of candidates.

So CX has either diluted their talent pool of upgrades or management imported the problems of the old KA. That is, whatever the percentage of damaging pilots, who have no business in training.

The good news is that Cathy pay will likely get back to A scale in a few years time. The bad news is that it will have gone through the rest of the letters of the alphabet on its way and it will be a fraction of the old A scale.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....049cda56be.png
811 earned above 3m in 2019. So what is that 811 out of about 1,400 Captains (?) in 2019 compared with 402 out of about 850-900 Captains in 2024?

When you leave the cadet training in Adelaide, they give you a survey to fill in. You get to choose what aircraft type and rank you want to start on. Many people opt for the SO rank as it has more days off, the CN4 training role does not have many days off. It’s a trade off for days off vs pay.

Very funny question.

Since cathay pilots no longer work under a "contract", there's no way of answering that question. There's zero guarantee about your earnings over time spent working for cathay. As it says in the first paragraph of the document dictating conditions of service, the company can change anything at any time at their sole discretion from time to time.

it is simply foolish to think you can have any expectation of earned income when you don't work under a contract.

Vendetta, you truly are a man with a fork living in a world of soup 😂😂😂

Man, you lost this game. Anyone can see it. Move on gracefully, get some closure.

Sisiphos. Vendetta is simply relating a TRUTH regarding the CX contract. Your comment is laughable. "...lost this game"...?...what on earth does that mean. Vendetta called out the significant point regarding the worthlessness of Cathay's employment contract. Perhaps address that fact...

There is no contract on this planet that can't be terminated. If you still believe you once had an eternal contract, how is it possible you lost it? THINK. We never had one of these fairytale happy-ever-after contract Vendetta (allegedly) imagines, nobody has. USA, Emirates, Singapore.. when the times are tough all our contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. Variability is the norm now ( in EK they call it "profit sharing", we call it "productivity pay" etc
Accept it, and don't fall for the travesty play Vendetta is attempting here, its ridiculous amd embarrassing. Our contracts are the same as everywhere: worthless and a snap shot of the current market conditions.

Speaking of 320 training I see the infamous and self named individual “the Rottweiler” is returning to grace the sim with his pearls of wisdom

When contracts were on chopping blocks in US after 9/11, companies had to file for bankruptcy, go to court, show cause for any and all cuts and open their books for a bankruptcy judge to decide and approve everything.

In Hong Kong nothing at all was required to be shown to anyone and it was perfectly legal to rip up an employment contract summarily. All that was needed for this to happen was an extremely unscrupulous employer to decide to do it.

In Hong Kong, it was proven that a contract you sign with an employer (cathay pacific) isn't worth the toilet paper it is signed on. Proven via legal precedence.

This was not what cathay pacific implied up to that point at all. During the interview process the interviewers showed us selected sections of "the contract" including the pay scales making a strong point doing the math about how much you will earn if you spend 10, 20 etc years on that payscale, among a few other strong point in there. Pay, Career progression, last in first out protection etc were harped upon. A very strong effort was put in to make the point how strong and enforceable of a contract it was. All proven to be lies. The outrageous thing is that after all that, cathay pacific is still lying outright about what a new prospect can expect from working at cathay. As if anything cathay pacific says, even if written in an employment document has any chance of being anything other than a lie. You can clearly see this from the type of questions being asked by people considering working for cathay. That they can have any expectations of pay, progression, equipment assigned, job security etc. They wouldn't be asking these questions if they weren't being lied to by cathay pacific. If you too lie to them when they ask for your help... shame on you.

Let them make their decisions with open eyes, with truth in hand.

Don't try to glorify or normalize the utterly sh!t situation you're in regarding your employer to make yourself feel better.

Even if cathay pacific is forced to put everyone back on pre covid contracts, nobody in the right state of mind would take such a document seriously ever again.

If you don't have any other choice better than pilot employment in Hong Kong, then yes it makes sense to accept the high risk employment with the likes of cathay pacific. But only if you're truly that desparate. I'm here to tell you yes I would if I was that desparate or had some extremely pressing reason to be in Hong Kong. Loved ones, family etc. I was lucky to be able to get a flying job making 3 times what a cathay captain tops out at. I resigned with zero notice given overnight, just like cathay pacific ripped up my contract overnight.

I understand that speaking the truth when truth is inconvenient to those who simply have no decent choice and are forced to accept the conditions at cathay which is not only substanrard but entirely unstable and it forces them to see the reality of the sh!tty situation they're in resulting in feelings of anxiety, hopelessness and helplessness. But this is not a valid reason to withhold the truth. No apologies to those who display such feelings here on this form or elswhere whenever inconvenient truths are written or spoken. But yes I do feel for you and your predicament.

Looking at the chart a Cathay captain "tops out" at let's say 4M HKD which is what the top 100 or so captains are earning, 3 times that is ~1.5M USD. You were able to walk into a job that pays that on day 1 on leaving CX?

I'm guessing OP does not have job offers from companies paying him ~1.5m USD per year hence this post.