- 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.
- Related: London's Gatwick Airport To Fly Lesser Number Of Flights During Summer Season
- "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
