Hong Kong protests: how Cathay Pacific’s wings were clipped amid Beijing’s wrath over civil unrest
- Staff’s involvement in anti-government protests saw the airline paying ‘a painful price’, with dozens of employees losing jobs or resigning
- But that was not the end of the matter, and the whole saga laid bare just how much Cathay had come to rely on the mainland market
Rebel City: Hong Kong’s Year of Water and Fire is a new book of essays by the South China Morning Post chronicling the political crisis triggered by the now-withdrawn extradition bill which has just marked its first anniversary this week. Edited by the Post’s Zuraidah Ibrahim and Jeffie Lam, it draws on the work from our newsrooms in Hong Kong, Beijing, Washington and Singapore. This weekend, we will run excerpts from the 512-page book now available online and at bookstores
It is something soccer fans have known for years: that, when a troubled team manager announces he has the “full backing” of the board, his head is about to roll and those of others will follow shortly. While it is hard to know how many soccer fans there were among the 32,000 staff the Cathay Pacific Group employed in August 2019, it was a safe bet that many of them would have had a similar sense of foreboding when the airline’s chairman, John Slosar, told them this line.
Hong Kong’s flagship carrier had landed itself in the middle of the anti-government protests rocking the city, its staff having drawn attention for all the wrong reasons. Not only was the airline’s home, Hong Kong International Airport, a focal point for protesters whose repeated occupations were making headlines across the world, but a trade union representing Cathay’s flight attendants was backing them.
Even worse, an off-duty pilot was accused of rioting, another of passing company information to protesters, and two airport ground staff were alleged to have leaked the travel plans of “dirty cops” online.
Still, Slosar seemed reassuring. At a twice-yearly press conference to discuss the company’s financial performance, a journalist asked him whether Cathay would rein in staff who expressed political views. “We certainly wouldn’t dream of telling them what to think about something,” Slosar replied. “They’re all adults, they’re all service professionals. We respect them greatly.”
The exchange lasted little more than 60 seconds, but was significant. Within 72 hours the heads began to roll.
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