Cathay Pacific freighter job
 

Hello everyone,

was just wondering if there is anyone out there that can help me with some information regarding Cathay Pacific and there freighter pool based out of London.

If you have any info could you please PM me or send me an email to [email protected]

Thx the fluffy flyer :O

G'day Fluffy...wot do u want to know?

JaJaBinx,

It would be great to hear what

a) rosters are like, typical trips etc time off etc
b) take home pay for Capts & FOs
c) command prospects
d) staff travel
e) morale


Thanks for your time.

Funny, I was just thinking the same thing! Just looking at their site. Airlines should put that stuff out so u could read it. Anyways. If you find out any good stuff, i'd apprechiate if you could fwd it to me. Cheers, J

You will find a lot of the information you seek in both the Fragrant Harbour forums/fora!

Apologies Fluffy for the delay, just got back from a trip and am recovering.
Right, money for an FO on Europe base is £41748 plus a few extras, this is payed gross into a Hong Kong HSBC account
a branch of which is at Cathay City. Duty pay is about £200 a month payed with salary.Nightstops about £60 cash in hand at the hotels.
There is no pension as such with CX. There are two options. The first is where 15.5% of gross salary is payed with your salary every month
and you can spend that on drink, drugs, race horses or wotever you like. Some even suggest saving it for your retirement! The down side to this
is that if you are liable for UK tax this amount is taxed aswell. Second option is to forward this money into a HK 'fidelity' account of bonds, shares etc
which is payed gross together with any contributions from yourself. This is your retirement account and is payable to you when you leave CX and again you
can spend it on wotever you like. Most people do this.
Tax situation. HK take about 12% every year (not PAYE) if you spend more than 60 days a year in HK. As they count arrival and departure days most Freighter guys
have to pay this. If you are liable for UK tax then you pay the balance of your total tax to UK, ie. you don't pay full whack UK plus full whack HK. Alot of guys live abroad and so only pay HK tax. Very nice thank you.
I take home my 15.5% so average take gome pay for me year 3 is £4500 gross. Applicable tax to be deducted.

Roster patterns can vary greatly. Normally 7-8 day tours followed by 6-7 days off. Sometimes tours can be up to 12 ( never more) and rarely down to 4?
Days off between tours are between 5 and 10, normally 6 with a sby at the end. We fly Europe (Manchester, Frankfurt, Paris) to Dubai.To HK then either back to dubai and then home (5 day tour) or once in HK you could have days off or a return Penang, Japan, Singapore wotever. Roster disruption is a pain cos cargo can sit around on the ramp until the a/c becomes serviceable whereas pax. can't ( unless you are easyjet....)
Flying the classic is great, make you feel like a king but you have to work at it, if not it will trip you up and you look like a plonker. That happens alot to me..
Moral is not too bad considering. The guys are great and there are usually a dozen or so guys at each stop to drink with. Master caution on the F\Es they are dangerous with a beer in their hands. Usual whinge about the company trying to screw you, managers being ineffectual, lack of roster stability but the company prospects are good and the company is bloody stable making loadsacash so no more whinging than most other companies. Need a good sense of humour tho' to get thro' it all!
Very short of captains but most fo's want to do their time and goto mainline. Time for this these days is about 4 and a bit years. They will pay bypass ie mainline pay after 3.5 years from joining. I was able to apply for cargo command after being there only 2 years (but I will hang on for pax flee)t, some less. Command pay is £75000 plus bits and bobs mentioned above.
Staff travel is good. ID90 available on any oneworld airline and full interline tickets. No probs there atall.
Salary scales are below. Can't think of anything else, might need some more sleep. If you want anymore info or expansion of wot I've written don't hesitate.
JJB

Freighters

Captains FO
75300 41748
76825 42588
78360 43428
79920 44328
81516 46068
83147 47448
84804 48876
86496 50340

JJB,
thanks for the great post !!

JJB,

Your post has been a great help to me as someone else interested in Cathay Cargo.

A few questions from myself if you don't mind:

I assume that you are UK based, if so, having applied for a command within cargo will that command also be UK based? Are there delays to getting a command if you wish to remain based in the UK? You mentioned standbys at the end of days off, how close to base do you need to be for these? Finally, you also mentioned roster instability, if this extends into your days off do you get day off payments to help compensate?

Hope this isn't sounding like an interrogation but I would appreciate the inside knowledge.

Many thanks,

Blakey

Blakey, I am manchester based so if i did apply for a command yes it would be UK based should the vacency exist and i think they do. Should be no delay if you want uk base for LHS, now that is it might change tomorrow!
Stbys are a sticky point at the mo, it used to just be a notification day to tell us of future roster changes and maybe to get us to our base for the next day but they seem to be changing that. They now want us within 2.15 hours of our base from the time of the phone call. Considering some guys live in france that might be difficult but we will see.
ohhhh did I laugh on your final question. No,no day off payments if you get back late which happens surprisingly regularity, but due to the age of some of the ol' girls we fly, this is not unexpected.
As i said you get access to a great company with fantastic prospects (probably only an 8 year wait for a biggy type command due to future expansion with the accomapanied biggy salary) but you need a sense of humour and loadsa energy to get thro' the freighter bit!!
JJB

Thanx alot for that great info JaJaBinx! What to do, what to do... Stay shorthauling pax round europe or longhauling cargo round the world. If there was an obvious right answer...! Cheers

BigL, yep its a big decision. I bloody enjoyed shorthaul but now that EJ and co have made that job such hard work ie 4 sectors 5-6 days on, it leaves you with no quality time at home, or time on your hands to do other things. Longhaul either cargo or pax, altho difficult in other ways, gives you this.
I'd sugget getting as informed about the job asmuch as poss and seeing if a jump to CX is worth it....goodluck

JaJa,

Are you flying the 744F out of Manchester or the 747-200/300 freighter? If you are flying Classics, will you likely fly the 747-400 freighter soon? Later on, can you bid the 777/A340/A330 while still being based at Manchester or would you need to move to Hong Kong for other aircraft types?

What did you fly before Cathay - Ryanair, BMI or Easy? Sounds like a great gig.

Thank's JaJa Binx for the info.
What is the experiance level (background) of recent F/O's?
I've heard all sorts of rumours and would like to hear from someone in the know.
Regards, pilot74

Lvl chg, I fly the 747-200 out of manchester, the frankfurt and paris bases also fly the classic. The -400 flies from Lhr and also the states but does more boring, not so interesting socialscene stuff!! If you want the other a/s types you must go to HK for a year (once they release you off the freighter) and can bid back to LHR (-400) or paris/frankfurt (-400 or bus) on the pax fleet.

Pilot 74 most fo's on the cargo are either ex-mil or average experience fo's with commercial experience. I had 2000 hours in commercial light jets/turboprops when I joined. This is probably the minimum. What is your experience level?

JJB

Are they actually hirering? I applied 3 yrs ago, still havent heard much from them, even I have experiance on heavy.

Dash 7 experience for freighter position?
 

Also interested in going DE F/O on the freighters.

On the whole experience topic, I have asked CX directly the following question, but have not yet received an answer: Would Dash 7 experience (MCTOW of 44,000lbs) count as the required turboprop? I think when you do the conversion to kgs it falls under the 20,000 kgs MAUW by 50-odd or so. Also, are CX pretty strict on requiring all P1 experience on turboprops (I noticed they don't seem to care if it is P1 or P2 if you have jet experience).\

I have lots of turboprop command (1400+) but so far all light stuff. Dash command still a ways away :ugh:

Thanks for the help!

Freighter positions out of London area
 

I think someone may have mentioned it already, but does CX have a freighter base in the London area? Which airport - LHR? If so, are 200Fs or 400Fs used? Has CX been recruiting actively for 400F positions out of London?

How do the 400F routes out of the UK differ from the 200F routes? More nonstops to Asia vs. stops in Dubai? I would personally welcome the stops in Dubai...

Cheers

EAM, yep they are recruiting something BAD. DFO said that the one thing that will limit future CX expansion is recruiting and training the right people, keep chasing up those applications.
Medflyer, not too sure about whether they count light turboprop hours, I don't think they know themselves wot they want.
LVL CHG, yep they are recruiting for the -400 aswell, cos F/O's are doing their required time and are off to mainline and need to be replaced.That is on a London base aswell as USA. They do lots of Lhr- milan- Hkg stuff ie. ULH. No time in Dubai ( quite a good place to spend days off) and lots of time in Delhi (not sucha good place!!)
JJB

CX Cargo
 

Hey Silberfuchs,

could you post me your emailaddress? Got some questions.
Here is mine: [email protected]

Danke im Voraus.

MSA

Can't we all share our info MSA?

PM's have their place but would be great if most of the info remained posted for all to see, would keep Silberfuchs from being bothered multiple times too!

How to apply???
 

Hi Guys
How or should I say where do you apply?? Is it directly to Cathay using the application and details on their web site?? Or is there some other method? Also looking for some more info, would one of you guys who are MAN based please PM me, it would be most appreciated. :ok: Thanks in advance.
Happy landings
Eff Oh. :)

All the basic info and e-mail addresses are on the cathay pacific website.

Do a search with google for 'cathay pacific recruitment'. It should lead you there.

Outlook is very positive after the dreadful period they went through last year. If they can get through SARS they can get through anything!

Selection is not as big a deal as some people make out but does require a lot of work beforehand. Do the work and preparation and you will increase your chances immensely. They are very nice people and if you make it out to HK for the second interview you will be very pleasantly surprised. Preparation is the key though - don't assume anything. Prepare for ALL aspects of the selection procedure.

Large number of aircraft on order (up to 13 freighter B744s, 2 B777 and 6 A330). High likelihood of additional orders for long-haul aircraft in the near future.

All the best.

Silberfuchs

You mention that Cathay have recruited 400 pilots in the last 2.5 years. In this case then, are they being overly optimistic when new joiners are being told that time to command is 3 years on freighter/8-10 years for pax fleet. I realize that it's difficult gazing into the old crystal ball, I just wonder about all of the factors in the mix; retirements, retirement age, expansion, and the new hires.

Maximum Age
 

Can you tell me the maximum age for applying?

thanks much

Hi guys
thanks for all the great info on this topic. I'm going to an initial selection in Paris on September 6th for SO on mainline. Obviously I'm very excited about it since CX is my dream.
JJB, you were saying that you could be based in Europe on the PASSENGER fleet after a year in HK? Or did I understand you wrong? I thought european bases were only for the freighter...

Silberfuchs

Thanks for the breakdown, as you say it's anyone's guess but, the clarification helps. My second interview is early August, so I appreciate the info.

JaJaBinx:

How long and accurate is their collective memory?

I was a late '97 ASL Baby with Air Hong Kong, when ASL was a "Type- Ratings-R-US" operation. Was "released" after check-out and 200hrs due to a run-in with a dubious training Capt.

Any use in applying again, with 4000+ hrs on type, and currency?

I assume the old "white-shirt::Blue Shirt" crisis has passed???

Anyone know when the London/UK interviews are??
Aug, Sep, Oct???

Hi guys. Theres a bunch of great info about the Cx Freighter Fleet here, in particular for the European basings. Can anyone provide some similar stuff on Australian basings...pay, rosters etc etc.

Also if anyone from Aus has any recent experience with the selection process it would be great to hear about it.

Ta, LandLong

Does Cathay still have a base in ORD?