(Bloomberg) -- Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. is seeking to train more pilots than ever in its 75-year history, as the Hong Kong-based carrier struggles to hire enough cockpit crew after mass resignations due to strict Covid measures in the Asian financial hub.
The airline will recruit and train 800 new junior pilots by 2025, working with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to revive a cadet program that was halted during the pandemic, according to a statement Monday. That marks a major expansion of the airline’s cockpit training plans as a global shortage of flight crew emerges as a major challenge.
Cathay said in January it will seek a steady recruitment plan for the longer term following high levels of employee resignations. Globally, airlines are taking action to backfill roles that vanished almost overnight via buyout packages or early retirements.
Hong Kong is following China is adopting a so-called Covid-zero strategy, even as other nations take measures to live with the virus. A resurgence in community infections, which led to fresh curbs, has frustrated the city’s residents, prompting many to leave the financial center for good.
Cathay will now hire in four years about four-fifths of the “more than 1,000” cadets it has trained in the previous 35 years. The airline, a representative of Hong Kong’s standing as a global business hub, employs 2,700 pilots currently, down from more than 3,100 in early 2021. Cathay has previously flagged a “very strong pipeline of talent” to support operations, without providing details.
Typical pilot training takes as many as 60 weeks, with Cathay arranging for classroom lectures in Hong Kong and practical flight school training in Adelaide, Australia or Phoenix, Arizona. The airline is set to hire 190 cadet candidates in 2022, and as many as 300 a year for the next few years, compared with just 180 cadets hired in 2019.
As part of its existing recruiting efforts -- which started in the summer of last year -- the company hired 200 pilots, making up most of the 300 people hired across the airline. They included many from the now-defunct Cathay Dragon. The carrier is also in the process of hiring 150 former trainee pilots who couldn’t join two years ago due to the pandemic.
The pilot shortage is a global problem. Airlines in the U.S. have started looking beyond their shores to Australia to hire cockpit crew. Within Hong Kong, Cathay’s pilots have suffered from a collapse in morale throughout the pandemic as pay and benefits were slashed, while foreign staff have faced increasing scrutiny of their work permits.
Cathay eliminated close to 6,000 jobs in an restructuring in 2020. The airline has also closed down most of its overseas pilot crew bases as part of additional cost-saving measures.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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