Hong Kong
CNN Business
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Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific is dealing with “unprecedented” team of workers shortages and will not be able to take care of a surge in call for, as town finishes up its strict Covid coverage and reopens for world commute.
A most sensible native union warned Thursday of “a record number of resignations from the company’s most experienced pilots,” claiming that Cathay “has lost over 40% of its captains and first officers.”
In a remark, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) mentioned that the provider was once “unprepared to regain its industry leadership position, threatening the status of Hong Kong as a global aviation hub.”
The team cited a breakdown in negotiations on pay, amongst different operating prerequisites.
Hong Kong’s flagship airline is “facing unprecedented staffing and training shortages,” and “stands unprepared to fully resume its operations, failing to meet demand in a resurgent travel market,” the HKAOA mentioned.
Like maximum airways, Cathay has been pummeled all through the pandemic. Once referred to as a premier employer, the provider ultimate yr grappled with falling morale, a spike in resignations and mounting frustration as team of workers underwent Hong Kong’s hard quarantine measures, which have been one of the vital international’s strictest.
But, this month Hong Kong ended its two and a part years of quarantine measures, resulting in a surge in call for for outbound commute.
The information introduced some much-needed aid to Cathay, which was once pressured to slash capability to as low as 2% of pre-pandemic ranges all through the worldwide well being disaster.
In fresh weeks, Cathay has mentioned it is going to upload masses of recent flight products and services according to the relief of border controls. It even arrange a digital “waiting room” for its reserving web page as consumers flooded its platform to shop for tickets.
Now, the corporate is discovering itself at the protection as soon as once more as pilots warn of persevered office problems.
When requested for remark Thursday, a Cathay Pacific spokesperson instructed CNN Business that it “has sufficient qualified and experienced aviation professionals to continue to support the current operation and operate at the highest levels of safety and customer service.”
“We remain focused on building connectivity between Hong Kong and the world as swiftly as we possibly can. However, it will still take time to rebuild our capacity as we build operational readiness and undertake a substantial amount of training and aircraft reactivation,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The corporate has already began an enormous recruitment pressure to enlist “more than 4,000 frontline employees to meet Cathay Pacific’s operational needs over the next 18-24 months,” the spokesperson added.
“We believe our contracts for pilots are competitive contracts.”
But as Hong Kong reopens after the pandemic different airways are settling on a unique manner. On Wednesday, Virgin Atlantic introduced it’s final its Hong Kong place of work and now not resuming products and services between the Asian hub and London’s Heathrow Airport.
“Significant operational complexities due to the ongoing Russian airspace closure have contributed to the commercial decision not to resume flights in March 2023 as planned,” the corporate mentioned.
Flights between London Heathrow and Hong Kong Airport were paused since December 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’re sorry for the disappointment caused to our loyal customers on this route and anyone booked to travel from March 2023, whose flights will be cancelled,” the corporate mentioned, including that consumers affected will have the ability to amend their flights without a exchange price or will have the ability to request money back.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to affected customers,” it mentioned.
Wayne Chang in Hong Kong contributed to this file.
