Thanks for the info. I was not aware that ridiculous amount of screening came from the TSA of the U.S., our homeland.

However, having traveled through Hong Kong in years 2018 an 2019, never did I experience any of this type of rigorous screening both those times.

Furthermore, Cathay Pacific staff was very "green", and appeared as though they were not trained properly/thoroughly enough. Dinner was served with missing entrees, trash pickup took longer than usual for a flight attendant to do their rounds, and just a general all-around lack of morale. Prehaps the pilot resignations of recent years and the decrease in pay has turned off the former Hong Kong flight attendants and the new recruits are all mainlanders from what I could tell

The problem with flight attendants not assisting clients with carry-ons that go into the overhead bins is that some passengers are not tall enough, don't have adequate strength, and don't know how to stow their bags efficiently for the next guy's baggage.

I posted on Reddit by copying what I wrote here to save me typing time. Just wanted to let everyone there know what we experienced. I did not write about the 2nd meal part, which was served very late giving us little time to eat before landing.

I agree that through no fault of its own Cathay needed to employ (and reemploy) a large number of c.crew very quickly -and is still doing so as it continues to expand the schedule .
It takes, I am told at least 16 weeks to properly train a junior cabin crew member and of course the airline only has just so many qualified trainers thus some parts of the training needed to be 'on the job' which is not of course desirable.
Many have commented in the past few months that the c. crew service has been very good but clearly it is still a 'work in progress' particularly sometimes in economy class.
Not good but improving fast

don't fly into the US much? This is the standard screening questions, they've been doing this at HKG and other intl airports for as long as i can remember whenever I fly back into the US. not sure why you're complaining about CX for this

Going through the whole threads, 2 words pop up: "Entitled" and "OCD"...:p

Well, how about passengers only carry the amount of crap they can physically manage? If people cannot lift their own bags, maybe that should be the first clue as to not attempt to bring it onboard. Crew are not baggage porters.

It made the choice not to hang onto lots of experienced crew short-sightedly during the pandemic. Tough circumstances, yes, but "through no fault of its own" lets the airline off very charitably.

Most likely AVSECO
https://www.avseco.com.hk/en

To be fair they had not a lot of choice given all of the circumstances. it was rather -let some staff go in order to save the jobs of the majority. Had they not taken these drastic measures it is unlikely that the airline would have survived.thus all jobs last

But they didn't save the jobs of the majority. They let almost EVERYONE go.

Utter rubbish -don't you ever check before making a fool of your self on flyertalk

Prior the pandemic Cathay had 34,200 staff this was reduced to about 21,000 by early 2021 i.e. Cathay let under 35% of the staff go - not exactly everyone !
By early 2024 Cathay again employed close to 26000 staff worldwide with over 95% based in Hong Kong

Some on line sources offer slightly differing figures and dates but not by a lot .

I must have a bent calculator. It says that 21000 is a reduction of 38.6% from 34200, somewhat more than 35%. I'd better get an abacus.

Correct they did not let everyone go.
But made sure their long serving pilots left unlke SQ, which is why Cathay is looking more like TG and the Taiwanese airlines are out performing it.

Pilots you know, planes cant fly without them . Less easily replaceable than ground staff or FA's

I did not feel the need to calculate exactly as my only point was that Cathay had KEPT THE MAJORITY OF ITS STAFF
Thank you for the calculation however my point is I believe well made.