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Cathay Pacific passengers have been spared flight disruptions - for now.
The company's flight attendants  have agreed to abandon  plans for industrial action today - the peak time for Easter holidaymakers  returning to work. 
But there could be more threats of chaos ahead, with negotiations on other  issues between the union and the airline still unresolved.  
Cathay's Flight Attendants' Union  signed an agreement with the airline at the Labour Department yesterday after more than 300  of the 350 voting cabin crew members ruled out  a strike.  
Under the agreement, the airline will remove a controversial condition on shift swapping, management will consult the union before it brings in new policies, and bi-monthly meetings will be held with the union.
More than 700 attended yesterday's special staff meeting, although only half stayed behind to vote. Twenty-three  voted for cabin crew to work to rule, which could have meant flight delays of 10 to 15 minutes. Another 19 abstained from the vote.  
Dora Lai Yuk-sim,  the union's chairwoman, welcomed  the airline's cancellation of a policy requiring staff to work a minimum of 70 hours per month before they could swap shifts, which had triggered the dispute. 
But she said that was not enough to end the saga. 
'The management has until the end of this month to  respond to our demand that they stop replacing local staff with our foreign colleagues on certain routes,' she said.
Lai said that after last night's deal was struck, both sides had agreed to hold another meeting on April 23.
The union would stage a rally on May 1, Labour Day, if Cathay failed to offer a satisfactory resolution, Lai said, adding she would not rule out more disruptive action if necessary.
One flight attendant  said  management had recently replaced local  cabin crew  with  staff from Thailand and Singapore on better-paying routes - including direct flights between Hong Kong and Melbourne and Hong Kong and Tokyo - while some local  staff were told to take up  routes  between  Bangkok and Colombo, or Bangkok and Bombay. 
'The daily allowance for Japanese and Australian routes  can be up to five times higher than that of  some other  services, so  those flights are  more desirable,' the flight attendant said. The airline could also get more from their staff by putting foreign employees on those routes because local staff were entitled to fewer holidays, the flight attendant said.
Cathay said  it was a trial scheme  that would end in May. 
A person familiar with the situation said Cathay's management had acknowledged the union's growing power. 
The airline's union comprises about 70 per cent of its staff.
'[The union] always  uses the long holidays to their advantage. In some cases, a strong union could seriously cripple a company's operation when  it stands in the way of wage cuts,  layoffs and  staff restructuring,' the person said.
Lai, however, said it was never the union's intention to use passengers as their bargaining chips.
'We don't want to disrupt  passengers' travel plans - it just so happened that this negotiation happened around Easter,  so it attracted wide media attention.' 
The agreement reached yesterday between Cathay  management and the union came after four days of discussions.



Cathay cabin crew abandon planned industrial action