News

Cathay Pacific expansion plans affected by pilot dispute

26 Jan 2016 by Clement Huang

Cathay Pacific has been forced to delay its expansion plans, in light of its pilot's ongoing work-to-rule action.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the carrier’s plans to introduce daily flights to Manchester and Boston have been postponed to next year, while the highly anticipated London Gatwick service has been pushed back to September.

In a letter addressed to the company’s pilots, Dominic Perret, Cathay Pacific’s general manager, Southwest Pacific called the labour dispute a “lose-lose” situation and one that was frustrating to all.

“Our growth plans for 2016 have recently been scaled back considerably, and there are a few reasons why we have made the difficult decision to do this,” wrote Perret.

“There are certainly operational reasons [but] other reasons for our slower growth are clearly industrial – namely the campaign led by the The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) here in Hong Kong of contract compliance and the training captain ban.”

As previously reported (see here), December 2014 saw the HKAOA, which represent 2,100 or CX’s existing 2,900 pilots, initiate work-to-rule action over disputes over pay rise. While the issue was resolved, many pilots continued the action due to other disagreements, including roster patterns.

In addition, the HKAOA also requested training captains to suspend training other pilots, thereby affecting CX’s manpower plans.

For more information, visit cathaypacific.com

Clement Huang

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