WE refer to the letter regarding Cathay Pacific's pilot recruitment policy (South China Morning Post, July 7).
Cathay Pacific has traditionally recruited its pilots from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada - a policy which reflects the compatibility of air crew licences amongst the Commonwealth countries. We have also been fortunate enough to have received considerable numbers of suitable applications from these countries to fill all available vacancies.
While this trend continues it is unlikely that we will need to consider applications from outside of our traditional recruiting areas although we ensure that files from all applicants are retained in case the situation should change.
It should also be noted that we have been recruiting and training cadet pilots from Hong Kong since 1989 under the Cadet Pilot Training Scheme as a corporate commitment to Hong Kong and now have around 70 Chinese Second Officers and Acting First Officers.
STEPHANIE HERON-WEEBER Aircrew Recruitment Manager Cathay Pacific Airways
