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Victoria Button

A Hong Kong Chinese pilot is on the brink of becoming the first local promoted to the rank of captain by Cathay Pacific. And dozens more like him are expected to follow over the next two years.

The airline's director of corporate development, Tony Tyler, said a Hong Kong senior first officer who joined Cathay in 1989 under the airline's cadet pilot programme is due to begin command training within six months.

The pilot's identity is being kept secret until the promotion is confirmed.

'This is a very welcome milestone in Cathay's history and we are pleased that a significant number of Hong Kong staff will be eligible to take this major career step over the coming years,' he said.

'Cathay Pacific continues to exercise high standards in the selection, training and testing of all pilots, and the command training phase is no exception.

'We are looking forward to announcing the success of these locally hired staff at the appropriate time.'

Cathay predicts it will have about 50 locally recruited captains in two years. The company refused to release pay details but, based on data for 2000 it issued last year, a captain with one year's experience would expect a base salary of more than $1 million a year.

The vast majority of Cathay's pilots are recruited as qualified and experienced pilots who have worked in civil or military aviation overseas.

The lack of a culture of aviation in Hong Kong, which has only one amateur flying club and no local air force, has led to a shortage of experienced SAR candidates for pilot jobs.

Mr Tyler said Cathay started a cadet programme in 1988 to train Hong Kong permanent residents, both expatriate and Chinese, with no flying experience to become pilots to give the community a career opportunity in flying.

The programme - which costs about $1 million per cadet - has enabled 150 Hong Kong residents to become Cathay pilots, but they remain a minority of the airline's 1,600 pilots.

Like most of the world's leading airlines, Cathay works on a seniority basis, which means they have to wait their turn to be considered for training to take the post as captain.

Cathay plans to recruit 40 pilots under the cadet programme this year.



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