Travel demand recovers after Covid-19, Cathay Pacific recruits thousands of more employees

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China)'s flagship airline Cathay Pacific Airways announced on November 24 that it will hire 5,000 employees by 2024.

Nhu cầu đi lại phục hồi hậu Covid-19, Cathay Pacific tuyển thêm hàng ngàn nhân viên

Cathay Pacific is hiring thousands of additional employees due to a severe staff shortage. (Source: CSMP)

Cathay Pacific Airways chief financial officer Rebecca Sharpe said the airline plans to hire more workers to address its severe staff shortage.

Cathay Pacific Airways plans to hire 4,000 people this year, including former employees. The airline plans to add 5,000 by 2024 in a variety of positions, from ground staff to pilots and flight attendants.

Cathay Pacific Airways employed about 21,900 staff as of the end of June 2023. This number has decreased by 11,000 people since June 2019 due to large-scale layoffs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, demand for travel has increased sharply since the beginning of this year, leading to a major staff shortage. The airline's union has criticized deteriorating working conditions.

Meanwhile, earnings at Cathay Pacific Airways have rebounded. The airline reported a net profit of about HK$4.27 billion ($548 million) in the first half of 2023, compared with a loss of HK$5 billion a year earlier. Ms. Sharpe said this was the first year Cathay Pacific Airways has made a profit since 2019.

Previously, on November 23, Cathay Pacific Airways announced that it would serve 14.57 million passengers from January to October 2023, an increase of nearly 10 times compared to the same period last year, mainly on regional routes, including services within and outside mainland China.

Passenger numbers on North American routes are also rising, with the airline adding Chicago as its fifth destination in the region last month. The airline also transported 19.4% more cargo between January and October 2023 than a year earlier.

Cathay Pacific Airways’ director of customer travel, Lavinia Lau, predicts increased demand for fresh produce from key markets in the Southwest Pacific , the Americas and Japan into Hong Kong and mainland China as the perishable season approaches. In addition, e-commerce demand is expected to remain strong into the year-end.

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