Loss-making Cathay Pacific extends HK$900 million annual outlay on pilots’ homes
Setback for company’s cost-cutting mission comes during impasse with pilots’ union over cuts to pay and perks
Cathay Pacific Airways will continue giving large housing benefits to pilots for a year, it emerged on Monday, in a setback to its cost-cutting attempts during an impasse with the aircrew union over cuts to pay and perks.
The loss-making airline will maintain its arrangement of paying a total of HK$900 million (US$115 million) to more than 1,000 eligible pilots annually – including HK$100,000 per month to the most senior aircrew – in accommodation perks. That is despite an earlier indication that it would cut the arrangement.
Hong Kong’s flag carrier is looking to make HK$4 billion in cuts over three years, including by shedding jobs. It lost HK$2.05 billion in the first half of 2017, after a full-year loss of HK$575 million in 2016.
In a statement, an airline spokesman said: “The new accommodation and rental assistance arrangements will, to a large extent, provide similar assistance. They are intended to be short-term measures while we continue to pursue long-term options to lower our cost base.”
Cathay Pacific and flight attendants union agree 1 per cent pay rise
The reinstatement of the accommodation perks came on Friday, as union pilots started voting on industrial action. If passed, the motion would formally mandate the pilots’ union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers’ Association (HKAOA), to prepare for industrial action in any eventuality, should the company cut pay and perks without a union agreement.