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Cathay cancels staff bonus, offers 1% pay rise

Cathay cancels staff bonus, offers 1% pay rise

Old Dec 6, 2017, 11:19 pm
  #1  
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Cathay cancels staff bonus, offers 1% pay rise

Belts are being tighten at CX, again.

From RTHK:

Loss-making Cathay Pacific on Thursday announced there will be no bonuses for its employees this year, but it will offer “ex-gratia payments” to staff that are managers and below.

“Whilst our transformation programme is making good progress, we continue to face some stark business and commercial challenges. Therefore, the company will not be able to pay the Discretionary Year-end Bonus to eligible employees,” Cathay CEO Rupert Hogg wrote in an internal message seen by RTHK.

Cathay said those eligible for the ex-gratia payment will get the equivalent of one month’s salary, capped at HK$35,000.

Hogg noted that staff who are senior managers or above, including himself, will not get the special payment. “We appreciate this is disappointing news, but our financial position is such that it is not possible to extend payments to this group.”

The Hong Kong carrier also announced a one percent pay rise for ground staff and cabin crew.

Cathay laid off 400 staff in June as part of a three-year cost-cutting exercise after it lost HK$3 billion last year.

“Although we have seen signs of small improvements in our business, there is still much to be done to deliver our transformation programme," Hogg added.

"We are undergoing the biggest change in our organisational history and whilst we are well on the way now, none of us should underestimate the scale of that challenge."
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Old Dec 6, 2017, 11:22 pm
  #2  
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Hope Because Air don't adopt the BA definition of ex-gratia.
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 12:14 am
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the entire Aviation world is making money

and then there is Cathay....
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 12:19 am
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Originally Posted by Kachjc
the entire Aviation world is making money

and then there is Cathay....
yes, and then HNA missed the payment due for leased aircraft.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN1DZ33G
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 3:57 am
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Originally Posted by Aus106080
yes, and then HNA missed the payment due for leased aircraft.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN1DZ33G
i hear the repayment for the kaitak plot too
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 4:19 am
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Originally Posted by Aus106080
yes, and then HNA missed the payment due for leased aircraft.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN1DZ33G

Does HA represent the whole world?

IATA forecasts and results are representative of the world...

Cathay has failed to capitalize on the Asian BOOM
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 8:22 am
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Originally Posted by Kachjc
Does HA represent the whole world?

IATA forecasts and results are representative of the world...

Cathay has failed to capitalize on the Asian BOOM
Someone in OW just went bankrupt.

Seriously, sending the same blame blame blame message here is not informative.
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 10:10 am
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Originally Posted by Kachjc
Does HA represent the whole world?

IATA forecasts and results are representative of the world...

Cathay has failed to capitalize on the Asian BOOM
when you divide the IATA forecast to the number of airlines, you will see how little for each airlines is earning.

Why I pick HNA? HNA has two subsidiaries in hk named Hong kong airlines and hong kong express which are direct competitors of CX.
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 3:47 pm
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1% is really insulting.
That amounts to ~HKD2 per hour, ~HKD150 per month.
It's not even half a cab ride to work, and they're gonna take it all back and more from allowance reduction.
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 4:44 pm
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Originally Posted by jckl
1% is really insulting.
That amounts to ~HKD2 per hour, ~HKD150 per month.
It's not even half a cab ride to work, and they're gonna take it all back and more from allowance reduction.
considering the airline has not grown 1% or kept up with the Asian boom

they should be happy there is no pay cut

plus this is CX logic, numbers mean nothing

Adding A350's and getting rid of 15777's and 5 a330's constitutes "RAPID EXPANSION"....

hilarious
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Old Dec 7, 2017, 7:57 pm
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I am very surprised that CX gives a 1% pay raise across the board (except senior managers), given their losses and layoffs. Other airlines in such dire financial state would have frozen pay or more.
The current inflation rate in HK is below 2%. The raise does not cover but does not misses by much. And merit/promotion raises are still in order.
CX culture is hard to shake.
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Old Dec 8, 2017, 3:20 pm
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Originally Posted by brunos
CX culture is hard to shake.
This is the problem when most senior management/ board members has no aviation experience, background or know how.
A lot of them transferred over from other Swire Pacific companies eg property management and Coca Cola beverages, in fact, CX doesn't train their own management trainees, all of them are transferred from Swire.
The director of flight ops has never flown a commercial flight and used to work in Coca Cola HK, now she's saying she knows the work of a CX pilot. Like how is any of the board member convincing enough to be leaders to the staff when they are so out of touch with their employees and are so shameless about lying?
Oh, and they have no responsibility and no one got fired/ resigned for poor planning, marketing, pricing or fuel hedging...
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Old Dec 8, 2017, 3:50 pm
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Originally Posted by jckl
This is the problem when most senior management/ board members has no aviation experience, background or know how.
A lot of them transferred over from other Swire Pacific companies eg property management and Coca Cola beverages, in fact, CX doesn't train their own management trainees, all of them are transferred from Swire.
The director of flight ops has never flown a commercial flight and used to work in Coca Cola HK, now she's saying she knows the work of a CX pilot. Like how is any of the board member convincing enough to be leaders to the staff when they are so out of touch with their employees and are so shameless about lying?
Oh, and they have no responsibility and no one got fired/ resigned for poor planning, marketing, pricing or fuel hedging...
The losers in this are the passengers, people of Hong Kong and the staff. That a company can operate to the detriment of public and be allowed to continue with that management team is saddening. Swire and CX consistently skirt the law, end up paying huge fines, then simply pass that cost on to us.
The product is abysmal, and staff dishearten. Its JAL back home for Christmas this year. I cannot fathom paying them another dollar I don't have to.
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Old Dec 8, 2017, 3:54 pm
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Originally Posted by jckl
This is the problem when most senior management/ board members has no aviation experience, background or know how.
A lot of them transferred over from other Swire Pacific companies eg property management and Coca Cola beverages, in fact, CX doesn't train their own management trainees, all of them are transferred from Swire.
The director of flight ops has never flown a commercial flight and used to work in Coca Cola HK, now she's saying she knows the work of a CX pilot. Like how is any of the board member convincing enough to be leaders to the staff when they are so out of touch with their employees and are so shameless about lying?
Oh, and they have no responsibility and no one got fired/ resigned for poor planning, marketing, pricing or fuel hedging...

Choosing SWIRE people worked well for 70 years...
I do not think Swire is the issue, they have a far better track record of running an airline profitably than MOST Experience airline execs...
They just have to learn to adapt to the market
the last 5 years, the current batch directors have no skin in the game- sometimes this happens. They should not have let Tony Tyler leave- he was probably the last ambitious CEO
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Old Dec 8, 2017, 10:03 pm
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it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the impact of management quality and of market conditions.

CX had some wonderful Golden years. it was beautifully positioned to benefit from China economic explosion and dramatic international travel growth:.Mainland airlines mediocrity, US airlines demise and lower quality of most European airlines. No need to be great CEO to capitalize on this extremely favorable situation.

But good management needs vision and ability to adapt quickly to market changes. It seems like CX never saw the triple whammy coming: ME3 to Europe, Chinese airlines coming of age and US airlines shining again. Their only success is in reining in LCCs, but that has more to do with clubby HK protectionism and airport saturation. Many, many mistakes besides failing to improve productivity. Slow to order smaller planes (787, 350), failure to develop significant partnerships, bad Y shell seats that needed to be replaced by better reclining ones, mediocre regional seats, mediocre catering (not only budget restrictions but no sense of taste changes), peculiar financial strategies, etc... And when the crisis hits, CX only plans timid changes rather than adopt a drastic plan. It stills look like an old British club where managers have no accountability.

Of course, CX might be lucky and get a break.
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