Struggling Cathay Pacific offers Hong Kong pilots, cabin crew voluntary redundancy in fresh cost-cutting move

Cathay Pacific is offering its Hong Kong-based pilots, cabin crew and airport staff voluntary redundancy as part of severe cost-cutting, and warning that business is not improving under the “devastating impact” of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hong Kong’s struggling flag carrier informed staff on Wednesday that a forecast of “no discernible improvement” in the short to medium term had prompted the company to ask them if they would leave voluntarily. The airline said it would continue to operate a skeleton passenger flight schedule for “some considerable time”.

The voluntary redundancies are tied to the near-total collapse of the passenger flight market amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with ripple effects being felt across the group’s operations that are heavily dependent on travel demand.

Cathay Pacific’s catering business was also seeking volunteers for redundancy, but budget carrier HK Express was not planning to shed jobs, a source familiar with the situation said.

Cathay Pacific cut 5,900 jobs last year and lost HK$21.6 billion (US$2.8 billion). Last week, it revealed it was planning the closure of the first of several overseas pilot crew bases, placing hundreds of jobs at risk.

The airline employed around 2,600 pilots and 10,000 cabin crew locally out of a total workforce of 19,452 as of the end of 2020. Across the broader Cathay Pacific Group, which includes its subsidiary budget airline, cargo terminal and catering businesses, about 25,600 were employed.