I am writing on behalf of 12 German, one French, one Portuguese, two Italian and two American expatriates, and myself, based in Guangdong, to inform Cathay Pacific Airways that their arrogant and mean management may temporarily have beaten their employees (the pilots), but Cathay is losing us and other international travellers.
From the beginning, it seemed to us that Cathay was showing an unbecoming haughtiness. Isn't this the airline that almost every year lands itself in some imbroglio with its own personnel?
What aroused our indignation was that when a critical shortage of pilots began to bite, Cathay chose to rent planes and crews from notoriously unreliable and unsafe Chinese airlines, thereby putting the flying public at an unacceptable risk.
We have no envy of the comparatively high salaries enjoyed by Cathay's pilots. In fact, we are happy to know that our money buys us a relatively safe journey on board a Cathay aircraft, rather than enjoying a meagre discount on another airline's plane that is manned by less-competent crews.
But apparently Cathay does not care about passengers' concerns, so we feel we no longer owe them any loyalty.
ROGER BEAUD