London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Cathay hires rival’s pilots, uses new technology

Hong Kong’s flag carrier defies dips in traffic with new hirings and new tech
Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific, whose passenger numbers and profit have been weighed down by the protracted protests in its home city, is still hiring new pilots and recruiting cadets for training in anticipation of a swift turnaround when it flies out of the social and political turbulence.

Cathay’s sound financial fundamentals as well as backing from its parent, the British conglomerate Swire Group, have been providing a crucial tailwind as the Hong Kong carrier, known for its wide-body jets and premium services, booked back-to-back dips in passenger and cargo traffic in August and September.

The company noted in its stock exchange filings that the Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year festive seasons in December and January 2020 may still be a bumper period for travel if the situation in Hong Kong continues to improve.

Tensions in Hong Kong have been showing signs of abating, with violent clashes and running battles between rioters and police largely gone after the city’s pro-establishment camp suffered a crushing rout in last month’s district council election.

Shoppers are gradually returning to malls and commercial precincts and the city’s airport is again seething with travelers. All this is good news for Cathay.

Chris Kempis, the carrier’s director of flight operations, told reporters that they had recruited 406 new pilots so far this year.

There have also been reports that Cathay has been luring pilots from its ailing rival Hong Kong Airlines, a subsidiary of Chinese aviation giant HNA, as the latter is desperate for a financial lifeline from its parent and mainland lenders to keep flying.

Cathay now offers “transfer opportunities” to some of Hong Kong Airlines’ cockpit crew to replace some of its own retiring staff, as the smaller carrier, which almost had its license revoked by the Hong Kong government earlier this month due to insufficient funds for operation, may have to slash its payroll amid the tepid business, according to the South China Morning Post and CAAC News.

Also, Cathay is set to entrench its monopoly of long-haul routes serving Europe and North America as Hong Kong Airlines is going to stop flying half-empty planes on these routes, with a total pullback out of the loss-making North American market after the Chinese New Year.

Cathay’s offer to take on pilots from its rival follows a takeover of budget carrier Hong Kong Express from HNA in July.

In the meantime, Cathay has also been trialing new technologies to shed costs, like “MyFlightWx,” a new digitalized weather information platform and mobile app jointly developed with the Hong Kong Observatory that can replace as much as 68 kilograms of papers and manuals from each plane to save fuel and promote paperless meteorological flight documentation.

Previously, cockpit crews had to carry onboard papers and documents as thick as a dozen dictionaries stacked together on each flight, but now they only need to bring an iPad, saving some 168,000 pieces of paper each week on all of Cathay’s flights.

“MyFlightWx,” the first of its kind across the industry, covers airport weather reports, aerodrome forecasts, hazardous weather warnings, as well as the global turbulence forecast.

On aircraft equipped with Wi-Fi, flight crews can keep themselves abreast of the latest weather conditions during the journey by downloading live data feeds via the mobile app and feed data collected by sensors on each plane back to the observatory for faster and more accurate forecasts, according to Cathay, whose flights as well as those operated by its subsidiary Cathay Dragon have now gone completely paperless.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×