Cathay Pacific pilots are escalating their work-to-rule industrial action, documents outlining the next phase of their campaign reveal.
Members are instructed to 'ignore the ticking clock' during pre-flight checks, even though this will 'unfortunately, but necessarily, increase the already endemic delays'.
'If you find yourself looking at your watch or the on-board clock during preparation - you are allowing OTP [On Time Performance] to interfere with your safety performance. Stop, take a breath, and go back to your task as if you had all the time in the world,' one document reads.
'We feel that this is necessary to preclude the opportunity for stress and time constraints to become a very real factor in an accident or an incident.'
Other new 'safety' measures include delaying cockpit preparation if maintenance staff are present, refusing to waive normal rest periods, not rushing DHL parcel-delivery charter flights and demanding dirty windshields be cleaned if vision is impaired at all.
Cathay's general manager of corporate communications, Alan Wong Ka-lun, issued a written statement warning that any pilot who neglected punctuality would be in breach of contract. The airline has sacked 52 pilots during the dispute, reinstating one.