Pilot Crunch Hits Cathay Pacific As Pilots Resign In Large Numbers

Vandana Singh

Fri, June 17, 2022, 

• Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (OTC: CPCAY) is facing a continuously high rate of pilot resignations.

• Bloomberg reported that the airline says it may improve allowances and benefits to lure the crew who took deep pay cuts to the carrier during the COVID-19 crisis.

• "We still have resignation rates at much higher levels than we've historically had," Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer Greg Hughes said at a town hall meeting for Cathay staff watched online by Bloomberg News.

• "It would also be an incorrect statement for me to make that COS18 is not one of the reasons."

• COS18 referred to contracts introduced in 2018 for new employees and expanded to all existing crew in October 2020, cutting pilots' pay by about 40% and reducing housing and retirement benefits.

• Cathay's workforce was reduced to almost 40% during the pandemic.

• In November, there was an increase in resignations after about 150 Cathay staff and their families were sent to a government-run COVID isolation camp when three crew members became infected while overseas.

• As per the Bloomberg report, Cathay plans to hire 4,000 people by the end of next year, including 700 pilots, Tang said.

• The airline plans to recruit and train 800 new junior pilots by 2025.

• Airlines globally are seeing staffing crunches, with travel catching up as the pandemic restrictions are lifted in most places.

• Photo via Wikimedia Commons