Safety questioned at Hong Kong Airlines
Company defends its record as captain speaks out on what he calls 'terrible standards'
As Christopher Allan prepared to jet out of Hong Kong with his family before taking up a new job overseas, one thing was certain about their travel arrangements: They wouldn't be flying with Hong Kong Airlines.
Like any paying customer, Allan is entitled to choose whatever airline he feels happiest with. What makes his choice intriguing, however, is that Allan was moving abroad after working as a senior captain and examiner of pilots on Hong Kong Airlines.
His lack of faith in the airline, he says, is based upon his experiences in two years as a pilot with Hong Kong Airlines and the "terrible standards" he claims to have encountered while testing pilots in simulators last year.
A former British Royal Air Force pilot, Allan spent more than 21 years with Cathay Pacific where he flew Boeings and worked as a pilot examiner before retiring and then joining Hong Kong Airlines in 2010 where he retrained to become an Airbus captain.
Two years later - and just two months after being appointed an examiner - Allan resigned from his position over what he claimed were worryingly poor standards among the pilots he tested and his general concern over safety issues at the seven-year-old airline, which has a fleet of 28 aircraft.
Weeks later, while he was serving out his notice, he says he was asked by his manager to "go easy" when he conducted a mandatory six-monthly test in a flight simulator on a senior airline executive who still captains some flights.