Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific beats the drum for 4,000 new recruits as airline begins long haul back to normal service
- Cathay Pacific looks to recruit 4,000 frontline staff as it prepares for increased passenger numbers
- Airline says it wants to hire between now and 2024 as it predicts it will fly at a third of pre-Covid passenger capacity by year-end
Cathay Pacific has launched its first large-scale recruitment exercise in Hong Kong nearly three years after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, looking for 2,000 flight attendants in the next 18 to 24 months as part of its goal to run at a third of pre-coronavirus passenger capacity by the end of the year.
The city’s flag carrier also revealed on Friday that “hundreds” of cabin crew and pilots, who departed amid tough Covid-19 travel curbs, had recently returned to their jobs, but that it was a race against time to hire more to cope with the expected increase of flights when restrictions are further eased.
“Our focus right now is to add as many as we can this year and in the year 2023 and 2024,” Cathay general manager of corporate affairs Andy Wong said at the recruitment event. “By the end of this year, we will be flying at around a third of our passenger capacity and two-thirds of cargo capacity from pre-pandemic days.”
The airline’s passenger lift in August was only 16 per cent of the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck. The latest cargo capacity was 59 per cent pre-coronavirus levels.
Unlike recruitment exercises in pre-pandemic years when more than 1,000 applicants formed long queues at the venue, the event had a calmer atmosphere with only about 50 candidates waiting at the Mong Kok Cordis Hotel for an interview.
The 50 were among those shortlisted from the more than 1,000 applications the airline has received since last month. More 200 interviews are set to be held during the two-day hiring process.
