Cargo strong at Cathay, so brand building, passengers to be new CEO's focus

CATHAY PACIFIC's new CEO John Slosar says he will concentrate more on the passenger side because the joint venture with Air China now in place has put the freight business on a strong footing.


"I've got four big priorities," he told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. "First, building the Cathay brand. Second, help the Hong Kong hub grow and be successful, which means finding new destinations, finding new ways to bring travellers to Hong Kong and increasing frequencies. Air China, Cathay and Dragonair should have fantastic opportunities to do well out of the expansion of travel to and from China."


Mr Slosar recently replaced Tony Tyler, who takes over as CEO of the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) in early June.


One problem facing Cathay is the chronic pilot shortage, he said. "We trained 400 local people to be pilots over the last 15 to 20 years, about 50 to 70 now a year. It is our plan to do more but we will have to do it step by step. Hong Kong doesn't have a military, so we have to train most of them ourselves," he said.


"But it's a costly enterprise. Training a pilot costs about HK$1 million [US$128,000] just to get them up to be a second officer. It's quite a commitment, but probably it won't cover all of our growth requirements so we will source pilots elsewhere as well," he said.


Asked whether closer times with Air China (Cathay holds 19 per cent of Air China and Air China holds 30 per cent of Cathay), would meant recruiting mainland pilots?


"It's not something we do up until now, but never say never. We have quite a few staff exchanges with Air China and there are all sorts of possibilities in the future. China's going to be one of the biggest aviation markets in the world. We are happy to get talented people regardless of where they come from," Mr Slosar said.


American-born Mr Slosar has been CEO since April 1, before which he was COO since July, 2007, serving as managing director of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HKAEC) from 1996 to 1998 and managing director of Swire's beverages division before that. He joined Swire in 1980 and holds degrees in economics from Columbia and Cambridge.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)