Summary
- Cathay Pacific has hired 100 cabin crew members from mainland China to reinforce staff diversity and higher serve Mandarin-speaking passengers.
- The recruitment drive just isn’t a response to a previous incident but goals to deal with the personnel shortage brought on by layoffs in 2020.
- Cathay Pacific plans to rent 5,000 employees in 2024 and have 10,000 flight attendants by 2025, including 1,500 from mainland China.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways has successfully recruited 100 cabin crew members through its inaugural recruitment campaign in mainland China, with some already commencing their duties, in response to the corporate.
On Monday, Cathay Pacific announced that these recent recruits mark the start of its goal to rent 1,500 individuals out of Hong Kong by 2025.
Photo: Cathay Pacific
Mandy Ng, Cathay’s Director of Service Delivery, emphasized that the recruitment of Mandarin-speaking flight attendants is a strategic move to reinforce staff diversity. In an interview last Thursday, she described it as an “obvious” and “very natural” step in constructing a various team of cabin crew members.
She further added,
“The mainland Chinese crew will complement our existing very diverse cabin crew community to raised serve our customers who actually come from different parts of the world with different backgrounds.”
Ng emphasized that the airline has observed a growing variety of Mandarin-speaking passengers, not only traveling to and from the mainland but in addition across the complete network.
Cathay Pacific fires flight attendants over discrimination against mainland Chinese passengers
Following an incident in May where three Cathay cabin crew members were dismissed for allegedly mocking a mainland passenger who, despite speaking in English, requested a blanket but was mistakenly considered asking for a carpet, the airline dismissed suggestions that the mainland recruitment event was organized in response to the incident.
Three months after the incident, in August of last yr, Cathay Pacific conducted its inaugural recruitment event in mainland China, shortlisting 600 candidates for interviews from a pool of over 2,000 applicants, with the goal of recruiting 200 to 300 cabin crew members. Through the recruitment, Cathay demands applicants to display proficiency in English and fluency in at the very least one Asian language.
The personnel shortage issue at Cathay Pacific Airways
Cathay Pacific faced a workforce shortage after shedding 5,300 employees in October 2020 and shutting down its regional airline, Dragonair, as a part of a critical restructuring effort to deal with the impact of the COVID pandemic. Roughly 4,000 cabin crew, 600 pilots, and 700 ground staff and office employees were let go within the HK$2.2 billion (US $281.2 million) cost-cutting initiative.
To deal with the personnel shortfall, the airline initiated an intensive recruitment drive, planning to rent 5,000 employees in 2024, along with the 4,000 hired the previous yr.
Photo: Jared Kilian | Shutterstock
A shortage of pilots compelled Cathay to cancel over 160 flights since Christmas Eve. The airline has, for the reason that starting of the month, reduced each day flights by a mean of 12, a trend expected to proceed until February. The height occurred on January seventh, with 27 flights canceled.
Ng stated that Cathay goals to have 10,000 flight attendants, including 1,500 from mainland China, by 2025. She added that recruits from across the border could be the airline’s second significant source of staff after Hong Kong. She also expressed satisfaction with the performance of the 100 mainland staff recruited through the August event in Shenzhen, highlighting their diligence in the course of the seven weeks of coaching and examination in Hong Kong.
Ng clarified that the brand new staff, like other cabin crew members, wouldn’t be restricted to mainland routes but would fly globally.
Latest recruits can anticipate earning between HK$7,000 to HK$20,000 (US $900 – $2556) per thirty days based on fulfilling the required flying hours.
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