Cathay Pacific no longer has foreign-based pilots

While this has been in the works for quite some time, it’s the end of an era at Cathay Pacific. As noted by Danny Lee at Bloomberg, the airline no longer has any foreign pilot bases. Not only do I feel bad for all the pilots and their families who have been impacted by this decision, but I can’t help but feel sad about this, as it kind of symbolically reflects how Hong Kong isn’t quite the global city it once was.

One of the things that historically made Cathay Pacific unique was how many foreign crew bases the Hong Kong-based airline had, both for flight attendants and pilots. If you were flying from many gateways in the United States, it wasn’t unusual to have the entire crew (cockpit and cabin) be based in the United States.

Unfortunately we’ve seen Cathay Pacific more or less take an axe to its foreign crew bases. Discussions of this already happened pre-pandemic, when Hong Kong was facing protests that greatly decreased travel to the airport.

However, the pandemic more or less brought Cathay Pacific to a standstill, given the strict border restrictions that Hong Kong maintained for so long. One-by-one, Cathay Pacific has closed its foreign pilot bases, and that project is now complete.

As of November 1, 2022, Cathay Pacific no longer has any foreign-based pilots. Most recently, Cathay Pacific shut down its pilot bases in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, which were the last international bases remaining.

In the past couple of years we’ve also seen pilot bases closed in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. This all follows Cathay Pacific closing all of its US flight attendant bases right at the start of the pandemic.

Cathay Pacific has closed all foreign pilot bases
In theory pilots are being given the opportunity to transfer to Hong Kong, though that isn’t exactly an easy decision. Most pilots have families, so there’s a lot that goes into making a move like that.

That’s especially true when you consider the uncertainty with this, as it’s anyone’s guess what Hong Kong will look like a decade from now.

I feel bad for the pilots in this situation, especially given the general challenges with moving around in the airline industry. At most airlines, pilots are paid primarily based on seniority, so it’s not like a Cathay Pacific 777 captain of 20+ years can get a comparable job at American Airlines — rather they’d start at the bottom of the seniority list.

Cathay Pacific had over 100 pilots based in the United States, and apparently 60+ of them have left the company. That’s sad.

It’s my understanding that this was all a cost cutting initiative. I’m confused as to whether the overall compensation structure for US-based pilots was better, or if it’s just more efficient in terms of staffing to have one central pilot base. I have to imagine it’s primarily the latter, as Hong Kong-based pilots have historically received huge housing allowances, along with other perks.

Unlike most other foreign airlines, Cathay Pacific had crew bases in the US, so you could be based in the US while working for the airline.

Cathay Pacific has completed the process of closing all of its foreign pilot bases. Most recently, the company’s three bases in the United States closed as of the end of October 2022. While pilots have the option of relocating to Hong Kong, that’s not an easy decision to make, and that’s also why most pilots didn’t take up that opportunity.

Best of luck to all the great Cathay Pacific pilots who got us safely across the Pacific over the years, and are now pursuing different opportunities. onemileatatime.com