I refer to the report headlined, 'Blacklist fear for sick pilots' (South China Morning Post, November 9), which suggested Cathay Pacific plans to discriminate against pilots who take a high level of sick leave.
As our spokeswoman Quince Chong told your reporter, it is true that we are faced with a high incidence of sick leave among some sections of Cathay Pacific flight crew.
As a responsible and caring company, we need to find ways to improve this situation. An airline needs fit and healthy pilots.
Like any organisation, we need to monitor employee well-being to ensure we provide superior service to our customers.
Having said that I would like to stress that the company has not implemented any new policies or taken any actions which would incentivise crew to operate if they were not 100 per cent fit.
Safety is always our first priority, and we will certainly not implement any policy that would jeopardise the safety of our operation.
