“This will enable us to continue to reward and retain our valued people, attract new talent, and provide a fulfilling career path for our people as we continue to rebuild Cathay and the Hong Kong international aviation hub,” said Vincent Yu, the airline’s general manager of in-flight service delivery.

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He said the carrier would continue to listen to cabin crew and review their pay to ensure it stayed “market competitive”.

From July, new cabin crew will earn about HK$17,000 a month when working a typical roster of 70 hours. In coming months, as the number of Cathay services and flying hours increase, the crew members could earn up to HK$20,000.

The carrier did not specify the number of extra hours that would be needed to reach the higher pay of HK$20,000.

Cathay employs over 6,000 flight attendants, down from more than 10,000 before Covid, excluding those who worked for now-closed sister airline Cathay Dragon.

The airline raised the basic salary and productivity pay for cabin crew by 3.3 per cent at the start of 2023, and a new outport turnaround allowance was put in place from February.

But some veteran cabin crew members have demanded the same benefits they enjoyed in the pre-pandemic era.

Speaking to the Post on condition of anonymity, a flight attendant who joined the company eight years ago said he earned a basic salary of HK$9,100, while that for new hires could be as high as HK$12,000.

Before 2019, when he worked 80 to 90 flying hours, he earned about HK$25,000 to HK$26,000 a month, including layover allowance.

But he suffered a salary drop of about 30 per cent after Cathay adjusted terms in staff contracts in 2020, earning HK$18,000 to HK$20,000 per month, he said.

“There is no longer a ‘work more, pay more’ [principle] in the adjusted package,” he said, explaining that “productivity pay” was a rate offered to staff, with the amount depending on rank and the number of flying hours they were pre-assigned.

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For example, a veteran flight attendant who was assigned to fly 90 hours might get the “productivity pay” of HK$1,400 a month, but their flying hours would not count if their duties were swapped voluntarily, he said.

He added their layover allowance was also slashed with more same-day turnaround flights assigned.

The airline has faced multiple obstacles in its attempts to restore the company to its pre-pandemic status.

After suffering a record net loss of HK$21.6 billion in 2020 when the pandemic grounded flights around the world, the company accepted a HK$39 billion government-backed restructuring plan in October that year, cutting thousands of jobs and axing its regional airline Cathay Dragon.

As part of the package to keep the struggling airline afloat, the government was issued HK$19.5 billion of dividend-paying preference shares repayable in three to five years, and granted the company a HK$7.8 billion bridging loan.

The carrier earlier pledged that it would pay HK$1.52 billion in deferred dividends owed to the government on those shares on June 30. The preference shares, equity with restricted voting rights, gave the government a 6.5 per cent stake in the company.

Cathay also introduced new and cheaper employment contracts for its flight and cabin crew as part of cost-cutting measures, which have significantly decreased morale among staff.

The situation was made worse after successive scandals involving the company, with the airline warning its pilots against taxiing at “considerably slower speeds” in May after the Airport Authority flagged the issue.

Another scandal, where flight attendants were recorded insulting non-English-speaking passengers, caused further trouble for Cathay as it faced criticism from mainlanders, Chinese state media and Hong Kong’s chief executive.

Cathay later fired the three flight attendants involved, less than 48 hours after reports of the incident emerged.

The carrier is running at about 50 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 capacity, but aims to raise the level to 70 per cent by the end of this year and 100 per cent by the end of 2024.