Cathay Pacific Airlines has told cadet pilots they will spend up to two months of their training by working at Hong Kong Airport, manning service counters and other jobs to learn about airport operations. The pilots union said they oppose the plan, arguing that issuing boarding passes and tagging baggage does nothing to enhance their training as pilots and may scare away new hires. The South China Morning Post said it’s seen a message from Cathay’s head of pilot training saying the program will start in June and involve two months of “rotational training” at the airport.
Cathay Pacific, once the dominant airline serving Hong Kong and the Pacific region, has suffered from competition and the pandemic in recent years. It’s struggling to recover and hopes to resume 70 percent of its schedule this year. Its cadet program was heralded as a key step in that direction to help solve a mass exodus of pilots who were forced to be in isolation during the pandemic because of Hong Kong’s strict quarantine rules. It now has 2,405 pilots, just 63 percent of its pre-COVID strength.
