More than 25,000 Cathay Pacific employees to take unpaid leave as airline’s business challenges remain ‘acute’ amid coronavirus outbreak
- About 75 per cent of the airline’s 33,300 employees join scheme, though many pilots and cabin crew refrain from taking part
- Coronavirus has thrown airline into turmoil with capacity reduced by 40 per cent and scheduled flights cancelled by 60 per cent
Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific warned on Wednesday that its business conditions remained “acute”, with 25,000 employees opting to take unpaid leave.
Augustus Tang Kin-wing, CEO of the airline, said “many” frontline employees and those working at the head office, overseas and subsidiary units had signed up for the scheme, responding to the company’s appeal to help conserve cash and protect the business.
People familiar with the matter said the take-up accounted for about 75 per cent of the airline’s 33,300 employees. However, not as many pilots and cabin crew had volunteered. Of the 3,800 Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon aircrew, of which most work for the main airline, two-thirds opted for unpaid leave.
“Our business challenges remain acute, but to those of you who have agreed to this Special Leave Scheme, thank you for selflessly making your own contribution in helping us to try and weather this storm,” Tang said.
The 75 per cent acceptance rate is in contrast with the near-universal take-up of similar schemes in 2003 and 2009, indicating not all employees bought into the company’s call for help this time.