Cathay Pacific will adopt a new calculation model for pilots’ pay from October, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier announced on Friday. While the airline said it hoped to “bring about greater certainty” to salaries, a pilots’ union said it would have little effect.
The move came after pilots complained that their pay was largely based on actual time spent flying, rather than a fixed salary. The mechanism saw pilots extending their shifts by “slow-taxiing” at airports, as they would be paid less for arriving at destinations early.
The Airport Authority Hong Kong filed complaints to Cathay Pacific in May about pilots “taxiing at at considerably slower speed than other operators,” resulting in congestion at Hong Kong’s airport.
The airline’s pilots’ union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, said the incidents reflected low morale among pilots, with salaries at 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to local media reports last month.
From October, the company will calculate pay based on either the scheduled flying time or the actual time spent flying, whichever is higher.
“This is a positive change for our pilots that will bring about greater certainty to their pay,” the carrier’s Director Flight Operations Captain Chris Kempis said in a statement issued on Friday.
However, Paul Weatherilt, who chairs the pilots union, told HKFP on Friday that the move will “have very little effect on what pilots earn.”
“It will only make one difference – in the future if you fly 10 minutes earlier, you won’t be paid less for these 10 minutes. But that’s what all the airlines do in the world, to give incentives to the crew to arrive earlier, because they will make passengers happy and the fuel used will be less,” Weatherilt said.
What had made a significant difference to pilots’ salaries since the Covid pandemic were changes made by Cathay Pacific to the way that pay was structured.
“Before the pandemic, roughly 90 per cent of our salary was guaranteed already,” Weatherilt said. “Now a large part of it was earned through flight hours – we’re paid an hourly rate.”
Morale at ‘rock bottom’
“Cathay lost the loyalty of their pilots by imposing deep cuts to pay and conditions under the cover of Covid… Cathay will not be able to support HKG’s recovery until they begin to address the reasons that they are so short of experienced pilots,” the union leader said in a statement responding to the company’s announcement on Friday, added that pilots’ morale was at “rock bottom”.
The city’s flagship carrier laid off more than 2,000 employees and revised contracts for the remaining crew in October 2020 amid the Covid pandemic, when strict travel restrictions all but halted international travel into and out of Hong Kong. The move was slammed by Cathay Pacific’s pilots’ and flight attendants’ unions, which said it imposed deep cuts to pay and welfare, local media reported.
According to the current contract, pilots receive a basic monthly salary if they reach a certain amount of flight hours, known as “block hours,” as well as productivity pay for any additional flight ours. Pilots also receive some allowance.
The company offered a 3.3 per cent increase to the basic salary and productivity pay for all pilots reaching their target hours, in addition to allowance increases for certain ranks, since January.
However, the company also set “block hours” higher for monthly basic salary of 747 pilots, according to Weatherilt and pilots who spoke to local media, meaning that those pilots will get less productivity pay.
The carrier has been adjusting staff salaries and promotion schemes recently amid an ongoing manpower shortage of pilots, flight attendants and support staff.
Productivity pay for cabin crew will go up by 3 to 8 per cent for those who complete their typical flying duties from July, the company announced on Monday.
On Wednesday the carrier announced it would invite Cathay Pacific Second Officers to apply voluntarily for positions as First Officers with HK Express. After working as First Officers with HK Express for around two years, those staff will be able to rejoin Cathay Pacific as First Officers.
