A magazine for staff and friends of Cathay Pacific Airways Typhoon warning Teams get ready for upcoming rainy season news How has aviation changed your life? Abu Dhabi bonanza Win a trip to latest CX destination travel Connection is made news Terminal team takes on Kinabalu challenge Climbing for a cause who, what, where Page 3 Page 4 Page 14 Page 16 PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER ACC in the air Cargo joint venture launch a big step in CX/CA strategic relationship Michael gets ready to hit the road COO priorities Michael Corey from Canada is looking forward to diving with sharks in South Africa, road tripping along Australia’s Great Ocean Road and finishing off at the world’s largest tomato fight in Spain. As the grand prize winner in the “Travel the World in 80 Days with Cathay Pacific” contest, Michael is now entitled to unlimited travel on the CX and KA networks for 80 days between 1 June-31 August, writing, photo- graphing and shooting videos about his experience along the way. “I’m an adventurous traveller by heart, and very curious about how our world works so I have a pretty ambitious to-do list for my 80 days,” he says, adding that a trip to visit the Everest base camp in Nepal is also on the cards. To win, Michael and the other seven finalists took part in a day-long Hong Kong challenge. • See pages 8-9 New Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu talks about the challenges ahead. • See page 5 May 2011, Issue 182 The cargo joint venture between Cathay Pacific and Air China, first mooted when the two airlines be- gan their strategic partnership in 2006, became a reality on 6 May with a launch celebration held in Beijing. The joint venture will operate as Air China Cargo (ACC) with its princi- pal operating base in Shanghai. Air China has a 51% equity inter- est in ACC while the Cathay Pacific Group has a 25% equity interest and a 24% economic interest. Speaking at the launch event, CX Chairman Chris Pratt said the formal launch of ACC as a joint venture rep- resents the “fulfillment of one of the principal tasks” set by Air China and CX when the two airlines reached a cross-shareholding agreement al- most five years ago. “Our teams of professionals from both sides have worked through very complex issues to bring to life the joint venture cargo airline. “Of course while the name re- mains proudly Air China Cargo, it has taken on different characteris- tics with a judicious mix of top qual- ity professional management teams from both partners and an injection of Cathay Pacific aircraft that forms part of our shareholding and eco- nomic interest. “As Chairman of Cathay Pacific, I have been delighted to be part of ALL HANDS ON DECK: Air China Cargo Party Secretary Huang Bin (far left) and Air China Cargo COO Titus Diu (far right) with (from left) CX’s James Barrington, John Slosar, Chris Pratt, Ivan Chu and Rupert Hogg at the event to launch the cargo join venture. Air China Chairman Kong Dong (top right) and President Air China Cargo Yao Jun (bottom right) both gave speeches to mark the occasion. the cross-fertilisation of ideas and mutual support that I have experi- enced at all levels of our partnership. “We are totally committed to the future of our business in Hong Kong and China and I am fully confident our joint venture cargo airline will become the premier cargo carrier in the Beijing and Shanghai markets,” Chris said. • Continued on page 2
Transcript
A magazine for staff and friends of Cathay Pacifi c Airways
Typhoon warningTeams get ready for upcoming rainy season
news
How has aviation changed your life?
Abu DhabibonanzaWin a trip to latest CX destination
travel
Connection is made
news
Terminal team takes on Kinabalu challenge
Climbing for a cause
who, what, where
Page 3 Page 4 Page 14 Page 16
PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER
ACC in the airCargo joint venture launch a big step in CX/CA strategic relationship
Michael gets ready to hit the road
COO priorities
Michael Corey from Canada is looking forward to diving with sharks in South Africa, road tripping along Australia’s Great Ocean Road and � nishing o� at the world’s largest tomato � ght in Spain.
As the grand prize winner in the “Travel the World in 80 Days with Cathay Paci� c” contest, Michael is now entitled to unlimited travel on the CX and KA networks for 80 days between 1 June-31 August, writing, photo-graphing and shooting videos about his experience along the way.
“I’m an adventurous traveller by heart, and very curious about how our world works so I have a pretty ambitious to-do list for my 80 days,” he says, adding that a trip to visit the Everest base camp in Nepal is also on the cards.
To win, Michael and the other seven � nalists took part in a day-long Hong Kong challenge.
• See pages 8-9
New Chief Operating O� cer Ivan Chu talks about the challenges ahead. • See page 5
May 2011, Issue 182
The cargo joint venture between Cathay Paci� c and Air China, � rst mooted when the two airlines be-gan their strategic partnership in 2006, became a reality on 6 May with a launch celebration held in Beijing.
The joint venture will operate as Air China Cargo (ACC) with its princi-pal operating base in Shanghai.
Air China has a 51% equity inter-est in ACC while the Cathay Paci� c Group has a 25% equity interest and
a 24% economic interest.Speaking at the launch event, CX
Chairman Chris Pratt said the formal launch of ACC as a joint venture rep-resents the “ful� llment of one of the principal tasks” set by Air China and CX when the two airlines reached a cross-shareholding agreement al-most � ve years ago.
“Our teams of professionals from both sides have worked through very complex issues to bring to life
the joint venture cargo airline. “Of course while the name re-
mains proudly Air China Cargo, it has taken on di� erent characteris-tics with a judicious mix of top qual-ity professional management teams from both partners and an injection of Cathay Paci� c aircraft that forms part of our shareholding and eco-nomic interest.
“As Chairman of Cathay Paci� c, I have been delighted to be part of
How has aviation changed your life?
Connection is made
news
Page 3
ALL HANDS ON DECK: Air China Cargo Party Secretary Huang Bin (far left) and Air China Cargo COO Titus Diu (far right) with (from left) CX’s James Barrington, John Slosar, Chris Pratt, Ivan Chu and Rupert Hogg at the event to launch the cargo join venture. Air China Chairman Kong Dong (top right) and President Air China Cargo Yao Jun (bottom right) both gave speeches to mark the occasion.
the cross-fertilisation of ideas and mutual support that I have experi-enced at all levels of our partnership.
“We are totally committed to the future of our business in Hong Kong and China and I am fully con� dent our joint venture cargo airline will become the premier cargo carrier in the Beijing and Shanghai markets,” Chris said.
• Continued on page 2
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‘Up to six months’ for Japan reboundMarketing focus shifts as travel confi dence stays low after earthquakeCathay Paci� c has introduced com-petitive fares to Japan and launched marketing activities into other key markets to counter the weakened demand still a� ecting Japan � ights two months after the earthquake and tsunami struck the country.
Revenue from the Japan routes is signi� cantly down as expected says General Manager Revenue Manage-ment Tom Owen.
“The demand from Hong Kong into the country has dropped se-verely. Tokyo is especially badly af-fected, as well as predominantly lei-sure destinations such as Sapporo and Fukuoka,” he says.
The Japan route represents a signi� cant share of the airline’s rev-enues and is an important front-end market.
Tom remains optimistic the mar-ket will recover, though he esti-mates it will be six months before it rebounds.
“A lot depends on how fast con-
Terminal progressDirector Cargo Nick Rhodes (left) briefs Head of Corpo-rate Risk Management Steve Tunstall on the progress of the installation of the materials handling system (MHS) during a recent tour of the Cathay Pacifi c Cargo Terminal site.
A group of directors and se-nior Cargo managers were given a tour of the terminal, where the top fl oor is now under construc-tion and the ingress and egress ramps have been completed to enable trucks to deliver materi-als to the higher fl oors.
The installation of the MHS roller decks and hoists is progressing well on the fi rst two levels.
� dence in travel to Japan can be rebuilt by the authorities and the trade. Once that is done, we think there will be quite a strong rebound of pent-up demand that we will en-sure we are positioned to capture,” he says.
Marketing and sales activities are being focused on the Korea and Tai-wan markets to encourage those wary of travelling to Japan to visit Hong Kong instead.
CX also added extra capacity to Southeast Asia, including an ad-ditional daily service to Singapore, to take advantage of the strong re-gional demand.
Tom rules out using a stimulatory price-driven approach at this stage.
“It would be counterproductive to do so given the current adverse sentiments in key markets about travel to Japan, although we do have very competitive fares on the market with plenty of availability,” he says.
The Cathay Paci� c Group made a contribution valued at more than HK$13 million to help those a� ected by the natural disasters in Japan, HK$10 million of which was donated to the Hong Kong Red Cross for their relief e� orts in Japan.
The donation came mainly from a sta� appeal run by Cathay Paci� c, Dragonair and subsidiaries and other fundraising initiatives. The Swire Group Charitable Trust also pledged an additional HK$1 million.
Chief Executive John Slosar presented the HK$10 million cheque to Hong Kong Red Cross Director Lady Wu on 20 April. Also present at the ceremony was Consul-General of Japan Yuji Kumamaru.
The group was shown photos of the work being done by the Red Cross to help victims.
Cargo joint venture gets up and running• From page 1
The joint venture begins op-erations � ying nine Boeing 747-400 freighters, one of which is the � rst of four being sold by CX to ACC as part of the agree-ment.
The second is expected to begin � ying in ACC colours in June with the remaining two transferring in early 2012.
There are seven directors on the ACC board – four, including the Chairman, appointed by Air China, and three, including the Vice Chairman, appointed by CX.
Air China’s Yao Jun has been appointed President of the joint venture, while Cathay Paci� c’s Titus Diu is Chief Operating Of-� cer.
A total of 10 CX managers have being seconded to ACC, with nine working at the Bei-jing headquarters and one in Shanghai.
The key markets for ACC will be North America, Europe and North Asia, with nine, 17 and 16 � ights per week respectively to various destinations in each market in the 2011 summer schedule.
With Shanghai as its princi-pal operating base, Titus says that ACC is well positioned to capture business opportunities out of the Yangtze River Delta region, which accounts for two-thirds of China’s air cargo busi-ness.
“Shanghai is the world’s big-gest export market and its geo-graphical location will enable ACC to o� er cost-e� cient solu-tions carrying freight directly to key consumer markets in the West,” he adds.
ACC also has exclusive right to market freight carried in the bellies of Air China’s entire pas-senger � eet, which currently serves 140-plus Mainland and international destinations.
Looking to the future, Titus says that “� eet expansion and network development are al-ready two priority strategic tasks for the ACC new manage-ment team”.
Performance Index
61.7%
88.03%Within 15 minsIndustry standard
on-the-dot CX standard
On-time performance
Passengers carried 2,159,885 -2.8%
Passenger load factor 76.9% -8.8pt
ASKs (000) 10,346,684 9.8%
Freight carried 161,461 1.4%
Cargo load factor 71.0% -10.7pt
ATKs (000) 2,271,188 15.9%* Figures for Mar 11
Traffi c/capacity (CX + KA)*Fuel price - Rolling 6 Months
Nov/10 Dec/10 Jan/11 Feb/11 Mar/11 Apr/11 May/11
USD per Barrel150
140
130
120
110
100
90
Sing Jet Kerosene
ICE Brent
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■ Finance Director changeJames Hughes-Hallett (left) has indicated his intention to resign as CX Finance Direc-tor with e� ect
from 15 November following his decision to relocate to the United Kingdom.
The airline said it is intended that Martin Murray, currently Deputy Finance Director of Swire Paci� c Limited, will suc-ceed James in the role.
■ Caring Company triple honourThe Hong Kong Council of So-cial Service has once again con-ferred Caring Company status on Cathay Paci� c, Dragonair and Asia Miles in recognition of their commitment and con-tribution to corporate social responsibility. The awards were presented at the Caring Company NGO Partnership Day 2010/11 on 19 April.
CX was nominated by four NGOs while KA was nominated by the Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps and Asia Miles by Oxfam Hong Kong. See page 9.
■ Fuel surcharge increaseFor the month of May, CX has received approval from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department to levy passenger fuel surcharges of HK$222 for short-haul services and HK$1,030 for long-haul.
These represent increases of 14.4% and 16.5% respectively on April.
Briefs
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copies of the CX book written by HKIA staff have been sold since it launched in 2009.
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Typhoon-ready teamsSystems put to the test as annual storm season approachesEvery year around April and May, operations teams start preparing for Hong Kong’s typhoon season with a series of disruption exercises.
A typhoon simulation exercise held on 29 April tested the Flight Disruption Control System (FDCS) and the work of the Flight Disrup-tion Control Centre (FDCC) with more than 60 ports taking part.
The FDCS was originally intro-duced in 2009 and designed pri-marily to help handle large-scale disruptions.
It allows outport teams to di-rectly input information on what is happening in terms of operations and passenger handling around the network.
“In 2009, FDCS was used several times as there were a few typhoons that year. Last year we were lucky to have fewer typhoons, but that also gave us fewer opportunities to use FDCS,” says Manager Customer Ser-vices & Product Development – Air-ports Russ Fortson.
“The system is e� ective in provid-ing a holistic view of airport passen-ger handling constraints during dis-ruption in one or two screenshots. It gives us an idea of the ports that require assistance and will receive priority when � ights start operating again,” he adds.
Russ says the exercise was de- GETTING READY: The fl ight disruption system is put through its paces.
New Business Class product continues to impressMore and more passengers are hav-ing the opportunity to enjoy the new Business Class product with a second Boeing 777-300ER delivered with the new product installed in April and another A330-300 arriving in mid-May.
Retro� tting will also begin in Au-gust starting with the Boeing 777-300ERs and followed by the A330s in mid-2012.
“This retro� t will be performed
in the TAECO facility in Xiamen and by end 2011 we expect to complete six 777-300ERs,” says Manager Cabin Engineering Diamond Ho.
Diamond added the team was already in the process of preparing the retro� t work.
“So with nine new aircraft – six 777-300ERs and the three A330s – we will have 15 aircraft operating with the new product by the end of the year,” he adds.
Head of Product Alex McGowan says the feedback from passengers who have experienced the new product, on both the Boeing and Airbus, continues to be strong.
“According to the passenger sur-veys conducted in� ight, 36% scored the cabin environment in the top box with 98% providing positive re-views,” he says.
“84% of passengers think we have the balance between privacy and
openness just right and 40% scored the top box for sleeping comfort, with 96% giving a positive response,” he adds.
Alex says passengers have com-mented positively on the personal space and layout as well as the mod-ern design used.
“They like the overall sense of style, the comfort and thoughtful touches like the extra storage com-partments,” he adds.
signed to give the ports practice in using the FDCS and working with the FDCC which, in the event of a signi� cant disruption, will act as a central hub of communication and information for outport airport teams.
“One key learning from the exer-cise continues to be the need to im-prove timely communication of ac-curate and relevant information to and from the outports,” Russ says.
“We may conduct one more exer-cise just focusing on improving that area with an emphasis on what con-stitutes e� ective timely information in this respect.”
Russ says every exercise is de-signed to help the teams get a bit better every time and strive to be totally prepared.
“While I would avoid saying we are 100% prepared, compared to where we were three years ago we are considerably better prepared for disruptions,” Russ says.
“The single biggest advancement over the past years in disruption handling and management is the understanding that e� ective disrup-tion preparedness, readiness and ultimately handing, is everyone’s responsibility – not just AHQ’s or the frontline operations teams, but everyone who is involved in serving our customers.”
Update from the Chief ExecutiveOur tra� c � gures and revenue results for the � rst four months of the year indicate that our core business is still in pretty good shape, though we are now seeing a substantial slowdown in cargo demand.
And, of course, the di� cult situation in Japan has left revenue on our Japan routes way below budget. These are major worries for sure, but what is causing real concern is the recent increase in our biggest single operating cost, fuel.
In April 2010, the highest daily spot price for SingJet aviation fuel was US$96 per barrel. That seems like a dream now! Last month we were paying as high as US$143 per barrel and even with the plunge of the last few days, fuel prices seem likely to remain high.
Fuel accounts for around a third of our operating costs and the fuel price has risen by more than 50% in the past year – it doesn’t take a mathematical
genius to work out how big an impact this will have on our business, and the aviation business worldwide.
There are a number of scenarios that could play out and it is good business practice that we are prepared for the worst of these – a “new normal” of high fuel prices that leads to higher passenger fares and cargo rates, reduced demand and a slowdown in the world’s economy.
Fuel prices have at least temporarily backed o� from the crippling levels seen in 2008, and nearly reached again recently, but the impact of the last few months is still there. IATA said it expects a “signi� cant deterioration” in pro� ts for 2011 and some US carriers are already paring back capacity.
Airlines in Asia are, overall, better positioned than their North American counterparts and at Cathay Paci� c we are certainly much better placed than
we were three years ago. Our fuel hedging position is much stronger than it was in 2008 and, having just come o� a record year, our balance sheet is also more robust.
Our long-haul � eet is more e� cient and that is especially important because fuel is even more the major cost of long-haul � ying. And, thus far (knock on wood!), there’s no sign of any tail-o� in demand in our core front-end passenger segment, even though fares and surcharges are rising as airlines are forced into passing on some of the increased cost of � ying to customers.
We’ll continue to hedge fuel – paying what we need to pay to get sensible insurance – and work harder to keep non-fuel costs under control. But we could be in for some turbulence ahead. Keep those seat belts fastened!
John Slosar
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Aviation contest makes a connection1,800 tickets on offer for most creative entriesThe “Cathay Pacific Connecting Your World” contest has opened for submissions with the Hong Kong public invited to win tickets by showing how aviation impacts their com-munity.
The contest was officially launched on 4 May by Director Corporate Affairs Quince Chong, who was joined by the contest am-bassadors – Chocolate Rain Creative Director Prudence Mak and travel writer James Akio Hong – who contributed their own thoughts on how aviation has enriched their lives.
The contest was developed to help cel-ebrate the 100th anniversary of aviation in Hong Kong, and participants can write a story, take photos or shoot a video to high-light their idea before submitting their entry at www.cathaypacific.com/connectingyour world.
A grand total of 1,800 tickets – 100 in each of Hong Kong’s 18 districts – is on offer as prizes.
Another 100th anniversary activity, the Cathay Pacific Aviation Knowledge contest,
Airport service stars shine
has also got off to a great start with the accompanying Facebook page at-tracting over 3,000 fans within the first month.
In July, a live quiz will be held with teams from secondary schools competing for a chance to win a visit to the Boeing factory and simulator sessions.
The Facebook page also engages with
participants through fun facts, quizzes and photo competitions.
Two prizes are being given away in the picture competitions – one for receiving the most fan votes and another for best repre-senting the topic of the month. The April topic was “passion of aviation”.
Three CX HKIA staff received the top Team Award at the annual 2010/11 HKIA Customer Service Excellence Programme in recogni-tion of the help they provided a passenger with a broken leg.
The awards, presented at a ceremony at Hong Kong International Airport on 19 April, are organised annually by the Airport Authority Hong Kong to recognise airport frontline staff who have demonstrated ex-ceptional customer service over the year.
CX also won the top Corporate Award, voted on by over 200 organisations based at HKIA, for the third year running.
Manager on Duty Mabel Ng, Supervisor Jessie Tam and Customer Services Officer Tania Tsui were all involved in helping a pas-senger with a broken leg and hip who was transiting in Hong Kong from Beijing on his way to Cairns for treatment.
The three staff arranged for him to be
upgraded to a Business Class seat so he was able to rest his leg and to go through the fast track security channel.
An airport doctor was on standby to meet him and Tania accompanied him to the air-craft before calling ground staff in Cairns to ensure an ambulance was waiting on arrival.
The passenger later wrote a letter saying: “Because of the actions of the CX staff in Hong Kong, my leg was saved from ampu-tation and I was able to be treated properly at the Cairns hospital. Thanks to them my leg was saved and probably my life. I cannot thank these people enough.”
Another five HKIA staff – Supervisors Eric Yui, Cecilia Shum and Susanna Yeung as well as Customer Services Officers Max Lam and Janet Li – received individual Customer Ser-vice Excellence certificates. While Customer Services Officers Cathy Wong and Henry Kam also received a Team Award.
DUE RECOGNITION: (From left) Mabel, Jessie and Tania aided an injured passenger.
Mammoth menu launched with Miramar GroupCathay Pacific has launched its most extensive inflight promotion to date with passengers able to enjoy a 90-dish menu created in collaboration with eight restaurants in the Miramar Group.
The menu is being served inflight in all classes to the end of July with Chinese and Western dishes being offered.
At the preview press luncheon, Director Corporate Affairs Quince Chong said: “Dining is an integral part of the inflight experience and we are committed to bringing the best of Hong Kong’s dishes for our passengers to enjoy. This menu is the next best thing to asking the Miramar chefs to cook for us inflight.”
The restaurants involved in the promotion are Cuisine Cuisine at IFC Mall in Central; Cuisine Cuisine at The Mira; The French Window; Tsui Hang Village Restaurant in Central; Tsui Hang Village Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui; WHISK; Yamm; and Yunyan Sichuan Restaurant.
IMAGINE: Quince (centre) with James and Prudence at the launch.
INFLIGHT TREAT: Miramar chefs showcase their tasty creations.
New COO Ivan Chu outlines his priorities and explains his approach to a challenging role
Striving for improvementIvan Chu took up a big responsibility on 31 March when he succeeded John Slosar as Chief Operating Offi cer of Ca-thay Pacifi c.
CX World spoke to Ivan, whose CV includes a two-year stint as Director Service Delivery and 13 years in key outport positions, to fi nd out more about his roles and responsibilities as COO and his approach to managing both the business and the operation of the airline.
First of all Ivan, what does your promotion to COO mean to you on a personal level?It’s a real honour for me to attain such a position in one of the world’s lead-ing airlines. It’s a very special privilege and I’m lucky to be working with such an outstanding world-class team.
Can you tell us more about your key responsibilities as COO?My prime role is to ensure that we run a good operation and a strong busi-ness, and at the same time work to bring about continuous improvement.
It’s also the role of the COO to ensure that, as a company, we have very clear priorities and good plans, and a sound execution of those plans to get results.
Last month John [Slosar, Chief Ex-ecutive] outlined his four key priorities – managing the Cathay Pacifi c brand, building the Hong Kong hub, China, and the development of the Cathay team. I’ll be working closely with John to ensure we retain our focus on these issues and that the airline remains suc-cessful.
As John said, there won’t be any change for change’s sake. We are a 65-year-old company, and while we’ve been very successful to date we need to continually rejuvenate ourselves.
Do you have your own particular ap-proach to management?There are three core areas – an empha-sis on teamwork, continuous improve-ment, and what I call the “Four Ps”.
I’ll make it a priority to fully engage with the team to ensure good team-work happens in a big organisation like ours.
There’s a Chinese saying, “自強不息” – “we should constantly strive for im-provement” – which has real meaning for me. As a company – and as individ-uals – we need to continually improve and fi nd ways to do things better.
The “Four Ps” stand for people, pri-orities, plans and performance. For the last one, people, it’s crucial that we nurture our talents to ensure the team develops and that staff are happy in their jobs.
What are your immediate priorities in your new role?In my opinion, Cathay Pacifi c has three core strengths – our outports, our frontline teams and the management team – and I want to engage with ev-eryone to ensure we get our priorities right and execute our plans well.
Having worked for 13 years outside of Hong Kong I know that our outport teams are a real asset. I want Head Of-fi ce to have a very positive relation-ship with outstations and ensure they get eff ective leadership and support.
A second priority is to build on the strength of our frontline teams – our cabin crew, ground staff and cockpit
Finding the time to unwindEveryone knows that COOs lead very busy lives, and Ivan Chu is already expecting to see a change in his work-life balance. “There’s not much I can do about that!” he smiles.
But Ivan will ensure that he doesn’t lose touch with his passions in life – chief of which is his family.
“I only have a small family but they’re a very big part of my life,” says Ivan.
The COO has myriad interests, many of which have also helped in his work.
“I read quite a lot, mainly non-fi ction,” he says. “Some of what I read is business-
related but I enjoy reading about history and philosophy. Chinese philosophy in particular has been very helpful for managing my life and work!” he says.
Ivan is very keen on good food and wine –“one of life’s great pleasures” – but also enjoys keeping active when he has a chance.
“I’m not into competitive sports, but I insist on regular exercise – hiking, swimming or yoga,” he says. He has a love of the great outdoors, hiking in Hong Kong with his father every weekend, and also watching football when he gets chance. “Football is my language
with my son!” he laughs.Ivan majored in economics at the University
of Hong Kong and later got a Masters degree in business at the University of New South Wales, Australia. When he was a student, he’d often spend two or three months on the road, backpacking through China, and travel remains one of his great joys.
“My favourite destinations are the outports where I’ve worked,” he says. “I lived in Bangkok, Beijing, Taiwan and Sydney – I have many great friends and always feel at home in those great cities,” he says.
crew. These teams already do a fantas-tic job and I want to make sure they get all the support they need.
As for the senior management team, it’s actually quite small – around 50 people – but together they’ve served the company for about 1,250 years! This is a unique advantage for Cathay and it’s important we use their collec-tive wisdom, experience and talent to the full.
How hands-on do you expect to be?As I said, I want to fully engage the se-nior team and make sure we get the priorities and the planning right. But
in terms of execution I will rely on the team – and I have full confi dence they will do a good job. Of course, I’ll be watching the results!
Will you be involved in the ongoing strategy process?I will work very closely with James [Barrington, Director Corporate Devel-opment], who’s running the strategy process, and also with John to make sure we continue to improve through the strategy review.
For the last strategy review launched in 2008 we had 35 projects, and I was pleasantly surprised to see we still have 27 new projects for the latest review.
The whole senior team will be fully involved and right now we are in the “think” phase. Next year will be the “action” phase, when we will begin to address issues that will en-sure our continued success.
There’s been a lot of talk about “The New Cathay” – can you tell us exactly what this is?If you look at our airline over the next 10 years a lot of things are going to change. We are taking delivery of 89 aircraft between now and 2019.
The new aircraft are arriving fast and we recently successfully launched our new Business Class. We’re working on our lounges too, and on the service side we will launch a new uniform and continue to enhance service – for example, we’re now conducting a full-scale review of our food proposition.
The New Cathay is about a new look and feel – improve-ments across the board for pas-sengers and big investments on the ground and in the air.
What are the biggest challeng-es as you begin as COO?The fuel price is certainly a worry at the moment, as is the stabil-ity of the world economy – things over which we have no control and that will demand we manage things carefully. As a business we have to continue to drive down our costs. This will mean working smart-er – anybody can cut costs but we will have to do it without impacting on key priorities such as safety and service.
Finally, who will replace you as Di-rector Service Delivery?We’ll know by the end of May when we announce our latest man-agement manoeuvres. It will be a big relief for me – I’m doing two jobs at the moment and it’s hard work!
I’ll make it a priority to fully
engage with the team to ensure good teamwork happens in a big organisation
like ours.
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Letters to the Editor
have been resolved by the NWoW team.
This means that NWoW MS Out-look is now ready for production rollout to the full CX and KA com-munities. This rollout commenced in the � rst week of May and will continue through until August this year.
The key reason behind the pilot rollout was to identify the issues mentioned in your letter and ad-dress them prior to the full pro-duction rollout.
A full FAQ and other information relating to the implementation of NWoW, are available at the IT Desk on IntraCX.
Reporting restrictions Can we please revisit the possibil-ity of crew reporting for duty at the airport as was done during SARS?
Crew could proceed individually to a particular counter, check their names o� and proceed through immigration before assembling with other crew members for that � ight.
The cabin crew could conduct their brie� ng in the aircraft cabin or on the airbridge, while the cockpit crew could simply do what they have been doing all along at outports.
This would save the company a
great deal of money and it would be a tremendous advantage to the vast majority of crew who could head straight to the airport instead of having to head back to Cathay City.
Name withheld
Alvin Yuen, Cabin Crew Op-erations Support Manager, replies: During SARS in 2003, crew reported at the Passenger Terminal Building at HKIA as a contingency measure to ensure e� ective operations during that volatile period.
It remains as part of our con-tingency planning should there be a need to do so on a tempo-rary basis.
The Crew Centre at Cathay City and the dedicated crew
Limited Outlook I noticed some departments have started using Microsoft Outlook instead of GroupWise. What is the plan for full-scale implemen tation, and what has the feedback been from the pilot users so far?
During this transition period, it seems that the server communi-cation between GroupWise and Outlook is not that stable – for instance, emails being sent from GroupWise to Outlook or vice ver-sa have gone missing.
One annoying experience is that an email with a 1.9mb attach-ment was blocked and not sent to the Outlook recipient. There wasn’t any auto-reply/warning to the sender that the email had been blocked because of the at-tachment.
Are there any guidelines with information on the Outlook limi-tations? And how do you suggest sta� deal with its limitations?
Can I suggest you issue an FAQ to let sta� know more about the di� erences between Outlook and GroupWise?
Name withheld
The NWoW Team replies: We have looked at the issues you highlight, plus several others which were identi� ed during the pilot phase of the rollout, and we can con� rm that all known issues
channel have been speci� cally designed for operational e� -ciency and to ensure that the in-tegrity of our � ight departures is not compromised. The facilities and infrastructure are also avail-able to ensure an e� cient and conducive working environment for crew.
The facilities at the airport are unable to support crew brie� ngs when we have more than 1,500 crew reporting for duty daily.
Video not on demand On a regional � ight on a Boeing 777, one of the crew told me that some Business Class passengers were upset because Video on De-mand (VOD) was not available.
I am not surprised at their an-noyance. Many airlines, including some with a service reputation far inferior to that of CX, have VOD even in Economy Class on short � ights.
Is there a plan to expand VOD to more � ights?
Kevin Howes, ISD
Alex McGowan, Head of Prod-uct, replies: Many other airlines’ regional � eets o� er either no in-� ight entertainment or broadcast a single channel on overhead screens, while the more premi-um airlines have multi-channel video distributed to personal TV screens.
These airlines, like CX, often use VOD-equipped long-haul aircraft on shorter regional � ights and this can create the impression that VOD is present on regional aircraft.
While we are currently competi-tive we agree that on-demand entertainment is valued by pas-sengers regardless of the length of � ight. This is something we will review as we plan our product roadmap.
Send us your feedbackWe welcome feedback from anyone in the CX network on any issue a� ecting the airline or the industry. Please email your letters to CCD#SCT. Not all letters will be published but those that are will be edited for length and to comply with the CX World style.
The sender of the star letter each month will win 3,000 Asia Miles. The Feedback page is sponsored by Asia’s leading travel reward programme.
The online pollWe asked: “Would CX’s product o� ering bene� t from the intro-duction of Premium Economy?” You answered:
0 20 40 60 80
Other airlines have shown it to be valuable – we should get PE as soon as possible.
It’s nice to have, but it shouldn’t be made a top priority.
The current three-class configura-tion is more than adequate.
%
Check out the CX World website and Daily News on IntraCX for next month’s poll question.
Service withheart
“The fl ight from Sydney to Hong Kong on 17 March was probably the best fl ight I have taken in 30 years fl ying with Cathay Pacifi c.
The Infl ight Service Manager, Sheun Tan (pictured below), could simply not do enough for her passengers’ wellbe-ing and happiness, and her forward thinking and anticipation of my needs were outstanding.
It was a joy to be on the fl ight, and these days, with the company having grown to such a large organisation, it is delightful that your crew still have time to take such great care of one humble passenger. I have not encoun-tered this level of service anywhere else.
And the infl ight team that Sheun led were simply exceptional.
I would also like to give special recognition
to the ground staff at Sydney airport for giving service with a smile – all while fi nd-
ing me the best seat available!
I look forward to fl ying CX for many years to come.”
Infl ight Service Manager Sheun Tan and the team on board CX162 from Sydney to Hong Kong on 17 March made a great impression on a passenger.
Airport Supervisor Eric Yui’s courtesy and the help he provided a mother and daughter on 11 October was appreciated by them. “My heartfelt thanks for the help Air-port Supervisor Eric Yui provided my mother and myself when we checked-in for the fl ight to Malaysia in October.
I wanted to travel with my mother on 11 October but my visa had expired.
He kindly rebooked us both on the fl ight on 12 October and even exempted the rebooking fee for us both.
Thank you for the generous care and warmth he showed us which made a diffi cult moment easier.”
Iris Lim, Assistant Manager – Uniform Project, replies: The waistcoat strap was recti� ed after the wearer trials and is now sewn down on the waistcoat to the very end of the buckle.
Therefore, it’s not possible for the strap to catch onto latches and passengers, drunk or otherwise, won’t be able to hold onto it. The waistcoat has also already passed OHS regulations.
The recti� cation was commu-nicated to crew following the wearer’s trials via the Cabin Crew Newsletter.
Waistcoat worriesAs we know, the new uniform is coming in early July. I would like to ask a question about the new waistcoat for the male cabin crew as I am concerned about possible occupational health and safety issues.
The new waistcoat has a strap along the back which could get caught in the latch of the food cart near the galley top.
There might also be a problem when handling unruly passen-gers. For instance, a drunk pas-senger could grab the strap.
Name withheld
Waistcoat
Star letter
7
Dragonair has reopened its A330 simulator at Cathay City after a three-month shutdown that saw it acquire the latest system enhance-ments.
Simulator Training Manager Airbus Domi-nique Pottie says this kind of major upgrade is carried out every eight to 10 years.
“Our simulators are supposed to repre-sent the actual aircraft, but the new aircraft are di� erent from the ones that came out a few years ago as the systems are continually enhanced to improve their reliability,” says Dominique.
He says the complete shutdown made operations di� cult for instructors but the training proceeded with the three remaining simulators.
There are four Airbus simulators at Cathay City and they may be partially upgraded every two years, depending on industry re-quirements.
Simulator ready to go after upgrade
THE REAL DEAL: Domi-nique Pottie tries out the upgraded A330 simula-tor.
KA PEOPLE
Change in the air It’s a long way from Paris to Phnom Penh but it’s a journey that the new Cambodia Country Manager Nicolas Masse has just made.
Nic was born in Lyon and moved to Paris to pursue his studies. After graduating he joined the automotive industry and worked in marketing for Peugeot.
“After a while, I took six months out to travel, which is when I � rst came to Hong Kong and China, before returning to Europe and working in Amsterdam for Peugeot,” he says.
The travel bug had well and truly bitten, however, and so Nic decided to join the airline industry about 10 years ago.
He joined CX France as Marketing & Communications manager four years ago. His fascination with Asia and a desire to learn more about the aviation industry drew him to Phnom Penh.
“Although being a Country Manager is di� erent to marketing and communications, I am still seeing things from the perspective of an outport,” he remarks.
He is familiar with Cambodia, having visited as a tourist a few times.
“However, it’s di� erent to live and work in a place, but I’m very open to new cultures, and I do intend to learn to speak
Cambodian – that’s my resolution for 2011!” he says.“My � rst impressions are good – the experienced team here
in Phnom Penh is very friendly, very energetic. “Whereas in my previous marketing role I was very
specialised, now I have take a much broader view of operations. For instance, I’m learning a lot about the cargo Dragonair carries out of Cambodia – such as all the live � sh,” he adds laughing.
Nic is also looking forward to exploring more of Cambodia on his o� -duty days, and he’s already enjoying the local cuisine, especially a cat� sh dish called amok.
“So far, I don’t miss anything from home, except my friends – and many say they will be visiting me in Phnom Penh. In fact one has already come to stay,” Nic says.
Dominique says today’s aircraft are much more reliable than 50 years ago when things went wrong quite often.
“Very little goes wrong in the aircraft these days, so we really need the simulator to train pilots in case something does go wrong with the engines, hydraulics, fuel or computers,” he says.
Dragonair’s Manager Flying Training, Cap-tain Andy Jepps, agrees: “Having a simulator that more accurately represents the A330 � eet can only add value to our training and assessment systems.
“As the industry moves towards a more feedback-focused training and assessment process, keeping our training devices aligned with the ever-changing operational environ-ment becomes all the more important,” he adds.
All KA pilots, regardless of their experience, undergo simulator training and checking ev-ery six months.
THE REAL DEAL: Domi-
ery six months.
10
Tyres they are a changin’Wear and tear leads to thousands of wheels being replaced every year
David Price, Technical Maintenance Centre Support Manager
What is the main part of your job? My job is basically to run the TMC (Technical Maintenance Centre) on a daily basis, interacting with HAECO line maintenance to make sure all aircraft are ready for the assigned fl ight number with minimum defects and all the scheduled maintenance carried out.
There is a total of 163 aircraft in the Cathay, Dragonair and Air Hong Kong fl eets – and with up to 10 aircraft in the hangar for scheduled maintenance every two years that leaves 153 aircraft a day to look after. My job is to look after these aircraft, 24/7.
The aircraft are talking to us all the time as they fl y their sched-uled routes.
If an aircraft needs an engine part replaced, for instance, then its normal ground slot of two to three hours may be extended. So that aircraft has to be replaced with another and the second aircraft replaced and so on.
It’s a big team eff ort involving 61 maintenance control engi-neers, planners and logistics staff from both CX and HAECO.
What is your background? I have been in operations all my life.
I started when I was 16 in the Royal Air Force where I worked on fi ghters and helicopters.
After 11 years in the RAF, I moved to British Airways and worked on the B747 Classics and the B777. After 14 years with BA, I joined CX in 2004.
What do you like best about your job? Every single day is diff erent. My satisfaction is in keeping it all moving!
What is the most challeng-ing part of your job and how do you tackle it? It takes a long time for me to relax. So I go diving because no one can call you when you’re 25 metres under the sea!
WHAT I DO Environment work gets golden accoladeAfter receiving the bronze award in 2008 and the silver award in 2009, Cathay Pacifi c won gold in the 2010 Hong Kong Awards for Environ-mental Excellence (HKAEE) in the Transport and Logistics sector.
Director Corporate Aff airs Quince Chong accepted the award from HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang at a presentation ceremony on 8 April.
In a radio interview on 25 March, Quince pointed out that measure-ment and reporting had helped improve the airline’s sustainability performance.
“We have been reporting on our environmental activities since 1997 and on our CSR activities annually since 2006,” she said.
“In 2009 we published our fi rst comprehensive Sustainable Devel-opment Report which outlines our aims and objectives for ensuring that sustainable development principles and processes are at the heart of our business model going forward,” she said.
HKAEE aims to encourage businesses and organisations to adopt green management practices, presenting them with an opportunity to benchmark their commitment towards environmental excellence.
They’re not just ordinary tyres.They’re big and tough, each weighing 209 kilograms. And, with 16 main wheels and two nose wheels, they bear
the weight of a fully loaded Boeing 747-400 passenger aircraft as it takes off and lands over and over and over again.
But there comes a time when all that work takes its toll, with the main wheels wearing out more quickly than the nose wheels due to landing and braking.
These wheels are checked by the operating Captain and engineer before each fl ight and a tyre is retreaded or replaced as needed. In its normal lifespan, a tyre is retreaded up to six times then fi nally replaced after 1,500 landings.
Using a jack (two for the centre wheel), a wheel dolly, a spanner and a wrench, it takes two aircraft mechanics 45 min-utes to an hour to replace a tyre.
And thousands of tyres have to be replaced every year with CX, KA and AHK’s 160-plus aircraft. A Boeing 747-400 alone gets ap-proximately 50 tyres changed in a year, which means 2,250 tyre changes for the Boeing 747 fl eet every year.
11
Asia Miles adds appeal with lifestyle rewardsLower redemption thresholds giving non-air products an edge An increasing number of lifestyle redemption items are now available to Asia Miles members, giving the travel reward programme an added appeal, especially among newer members.
There are now 12 categories of non-air redemption (NAR) items, including special events, gifts and wining and dining with 130 part-ners worldwide.
Manager Partnership & Pro-gramme Development Patton Chan says one major selling point is the lower threshold of miles needed.
“By lowering the threshold to re-deem items to as low as 3,000 miles, more members can start to redeem earlier,” he says.
Emphasis has also been placed on quality and product relevance.
“We try to have the latest and hot-test items on offer. For instance when the XBox Kinect was first launched it was available for redemption but there was only limited stock on the market,” says Assistant Manager Non-Air Partners Cherry Tsui.
Cherry says enriching the current selection and adding novel types of
entertainment is a key component in expanding NAR.
“We added cooking classes, ex-clusive wine dinners and art jam-ming sessions – these are special experiences you rarely see in other redemption programmes,” she says.
One reason the redemption threshold is lower is due to unbun-dling, giving members the option to redeem single items.
“It gives more flexibility and con-venience,” Patton explains. “You can buy a pair of concert tickets, but what happens if there are three of you?”
Several popular item trends have already emerged.
“Members like practical, non-dec-orative items such as the Asia Miles backpacks and towels. They also have a low redemption threshold and worldwide delivery, which is an added attraction,” Patton says.
He says NAR gives another edge to Asia Miles.
“All frequent flyer programmes of-fer air travel, but with the increased number of NAR items we have an-other edge,” he says.
n WeSuggest! is backThe WeSuggest! committee is looking for teams of two to four members to submit ideas for improvements in regards to any aspect of the airline.
Ideas can be submitted from 16 May to 5 June by emailing PNL#ISG.
This year the four shortlisted teams will attend a three-day offsite meeting in Taipei in late June to further develop their proposals in a relaxed atmos-phere before the final presenta-tion to senior management.
A grand prize of cash cer-tificates equivalent to 188 CX shares will be awarded to the team with the best idea.
n Sweet treat in EconomyAs part of a move to raise the bar in terms of the airline’s catering offering, ice cream is now being offered as a dessert option in Economy Class on selected me-dium- and long-haul flights.
According to Inflight Services, “ice cream has always proved popular with passengers and we are pleased to be able to offer this again in Economy Class”.
A number of catering im-provements will be gradually introduced over the coming months in all classes.
n Alliance brings down costsoneworld’s cost reduction activities have yielded their biggest an-nual savings for eight years with more than US$42 million in benefits for member airlines generated in 2010.
The savings came mainly from two areas – a joint purchase by the alliance’s European carriers for ground-to-air communica-tions services, which reduced costs by 30% or more, and a col-laborative effort with manufac-turers Rolls-Royce and CFMi to resolve issues with their engines.
The total savings made through oneworld cost reduc-tion efforts since the alliance was launched amount to almost US$370 million.
Briefs
There are
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partners in Hong Kong offering staff benefits.
REWARD YOURSELF: A wide range of non-air redemption items are on offer.
The PSS team will be taking their message to the outports from May, visiting eight offices around the network.
The roadshow will kick off in Cathay City on 11 May and will visit Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong Office and the Tsuen Wan Member Ser-vice Centre.
The roadshow will then visit the Reservations & Ticketing centres in Bangkok, Mumbai, London, Taipei, Tokyo, Sydney and Vancouver from May to June.
PSS goes on the road
Hong Kong children have a great opportunity to brush up their soc-cer skills at the Manchester United Soccer School or improve their golf swing at a camp in Wales through two courses being offered by Cathay Pacific Holidays this summer.
The English Language and Foot-ball Summer course invites par-ticipants to “live, train and play the United way”, providing professional football coaching and English lan-guage tuition and a visit to Old Traf-ford Stadium.
The English and Golf High Perfor-mance Summer Camp takes place at Celtic Manor Resort in the Welsh hills, venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup.
Participants will receive high-quality golf coaching and English
Sharpening up soccer, golf skills in the sun
tuition and the course includes ex-cursions to Alton Towers theme park and Cardiff.
Both packages are for two weeks in July and August and the price in-cludes air tickets, accommodation,
meals and the course fee. This is the first time CHL is of-
fering these courses and Manager Outbound Business Development Josephine Woo says there is grow-ing potential in this area.
“The main selling point is that the courses are run by well-known pro-fessional sports organisations, so the children are being taught by the best,” Josephine says.
“The parents like the educational aspect as the kids have a chance to improve their English language skills idea, while the idea of two weeks in the UK in summer is also a draw,” she adds.
The courses are being promoted at local schools, sport clubs and via the CHL website.
SUMMER FUN: CHL is selling pack-ages to attend soccer school.
12
India teams put to the test with growing competitionPassengers around India will be learning more about CX and KA via a brand-building campaign throughout 2011 in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
In April, the team started the second phase of the People & Service campaign highlighting the frequencies to Hong Kong from Delhi and Mumbai, while a thematic campaign appeared in print and digital media in Chennai.
General Manager Middle East, India, Africa & Pakistan Tom Wright says another campaign burst along the same lines is scheduled for August and September.
“We also have a joint above-the-line print and digital campaign with Hong Kong Disneyland to promote their summer o� ers,” he says.
The India routes have been enjoying high load factors with 2010 passenger sales exceeding the revised target. “That left the sales team with big smiles on their faces!” Tom says.
“But 2011 has been tougher for us. This is partly due to increased competition – Emirates for instance now operate 180 � ights out of India a week against our 35. This is also a late booking market so we � nd it di� cult to get access to seats beyond Hong Kong,” he adds.
The Delhi route in particular is seeing increased competition with King� sher and Jet Airways joining Air India and CX in operating � ights to Hong Kong.
“However, this is a growing market and we are con� dent we will continue to do well,” Tom says.
“On the Mumbai route, it’s been nice to see that with a new schedule and the correct front-end product, the service is proving to be popular with businessmen and � nanciers both from Hong Kong and Mumbai.”
Tom says he sees potential in direct sales in both the customer and corporate markets.
“Indian customers value service and that is one area where we are sure about ourselves and con� dent of retaining the customer if they come to us directly,” he says.
“They are becoming increasingly tech savvy and that gives us scope to look at online sales, and we are positioning ourselves as a corporate carrier, highlighting our schedules, products and a competitive corporate pricing model,” Tom adds.
With business growth came the need for more sta� and the India team has blossomed from 80 to 250 over the past three years. Tom believes regular gatherings ensure team synergy, sustaining and growing a winning team and imbibing the CX values.
“The working culture at Cathay Paci� c is team based and one of our mission statements is to grow a winning team,” Tom points out.
NEWS FOCUS
BONDING MOMENT: Teambuilding skills come to the fore during a Vision Day gathering for India staff.
UN
ITED
ARA
B EM
IRAT
ESN
ETH
ERLA
ND
SThe Dubai team went out of their way to help when four power generators weighing 20 tonnes each needed to be shipped to Japan.
The challenge was on from the start as the team was limited to one piece per � ight as the generators could only be loaded as a � oating pallet, and a series of approvals from the
police and airport authorities were required. Special equipment also had to be sourced as the GHA in Dubai was unable to uplift the heavy shipment.
The team arranged for cranes to load the generators onto trucks in the warehouse
and to the main deck loader for the � nal loading onto the CX freighters.
European heads gatherAmsterdam was the host city for the European Conference 2011 held on 13-14 April.
The conference began with a teambuilding activity in the city centre for participants to get to know each other better.
The following day the event kicked o� with presentations by Chief Operating O� cer Ivan Chu, Director Sales & Market-
ing Rupert Hogg and other senior managers who shared
company updates with the European management team.
Guest speaker was Philips Design Creative
Director Jos Stuyfzand, pictured second left.
IND
ON
ESIA
The CX Surabaya team marked the start of daily services to Hong Kong on 2 April with some special events at the airport.
The team was joined by the GHA PT Jasa Angkasa Semesta and Aerofood Catering Services to greet passengers arriving on CX781 on 1 April and departing on CX780 on 2 April.
Passengers on both � ights were greeted by sta� in tradition-al Surabaya costumes and were given chocolate tru� es.
A traditional Indonesian “Se-lamatan” ceremony was held after CX780 departed to bless the team and working partners.
PAK
ISTA
N
Farewell to Mr MinwallaThe Travel Agents Association of Pakistan recently held a gathering to say farewell to Darayus Happy Minwalla, who was a driving force behind setting up CX Karachi and retired as CX regional manager for Pakistan in February.
The event was hosted by TAPP Chairman Yahya Polani and was attended by many distinguished names from the local travel industry.
Pictured at the dinner are (above, from left) Saleem Siyani, Deputy Managing Director of PIA, Arif Ali Abbasi, former PIA Managing Director, and Happy.
Meanwhile, the KHI team organised its Japanese Community Golf Tournament held at the Arabian Sea Country & Golf Club in March, with the 50-odd participants including the Japanese Consul General and Vice Consul.
Tickets from Karachi to Bangkok and a CX hamper were among the range of prizes o� ered for the winners – and losers – on the day.
Sweet start for daily service
Heavy challenge in Dubai
police and airport authorities were required. police and airport authorities were required. Special equipment also had to be sourced Special equipment also had to be sourced as the GHA in Dubai was unable to uplift the heavy shipment.
generators onto trucks in the warehouse and to the main deck loader for the � nal
loading onto the CX freighters.
13
It was something Alessia Pegoraro had wanted to do for eight years. Finally, a few months ago, she went to Peru and got her chance – she went sand sur� ng!
“It has been a dream of mine since I went to Australia in 2003 and learned about this extreme sport,” says the Milan-based Customer Sales O� cer who joined Cathay Paci� c in 2002.
Sand sur� ng is practiced where there is an abundance of sand dunes and involves climbing up the sand dune then sur� ng swiftly down to the bottom.
“The speed obviously depends on the steepness of the slope – it can get quite scary! But the good thing is that beginners can go on their bellies and amazingly you don’t even get sand in your eyes,” Alessia says.
“The only downside is you have to walk all the way back up after coming down.”
Alessia says she loves the feeling of speed and can’t wait to do it again on her next holiday.
“I love my job, my colleagues and my � ight bene� ts,” she says.
Alessia goes extreme with sand surfi ng
PORT PEOPLE
THRILL SEEK-ERS: Alessia in midfl ight (right) and with fellow CX staffer Ales-sandra Mar-colongo (below) on the sand dunes of Peru.
Obituary – Jenny ChanColleagues and friends were saddened to hear of the passing of Jenny Chan, a former member of the CX South Africa team, in March 2011 after a brave battle with cancer.
Jenny joined the JNB Reservations team in June 2002 and her vibrant character, helpful persona and strong work ethic saw her career develop quickly.
She moved across to become a Sales Executive and was quickly promoted again to Sales Supervisor. Jenny was being groomed to take over as the Sales & Marketing Manager for CX South Africa but had to resign in July 2009 after falling ill.
Sharon Chen, Marketing Supervisor for CX South Africa, says Jenny was “full of enthusiasm, optimism and energy and always wore a wonderful smile. She will be greatly missed.”
AUST
RALI
A
Sydneysiders sitting pretty
Top media honouredFor the second year running, leading New Zealand columnist and au-thor Steve Braunias won the major writing award at the Cathay Paci� c Travel Media Awards in New Zealand.
The awards were presented at a gala dinner at Auckland’s Heritage Hotel on 22 March with Country Manager, New Zealand & Paci� c Islands David Figgins representing CX. The airline has been the major sponsor
of the awards since they were established in 1991. Steve took the top spot for his story, Trouble in Mosgiel,
which depicts life in the small South Island town. He was presented with two tickets to Kathmandu on CX and KA and a six-day tour sponsored by Adventure World.
The photography prize, which was also two tickets to Kathmandu, was won by freelance photographer Tessa Chrisp for her photos of the Sisters of Compassion church at the Jerusalem settlement located on the Whanganui river.
Russian night out for agentsThe CX agency Taipei dinner held on 9 March had a Russian theme with the team and more than 100 agents enjoying the colourful night.
General Manager Taiwan & Korea Adrian Harley thanked guests for their support and presented prizes to the top passenger agents.
On 17 Match it was the turn of the Cargo team with cargo agents having a great time singing songs with Adrian.
PHIL
IPPI
NES
NEW
ZEA
LAN
DTA
IWA
N
Colourful new year celebration CX showed its support for Cebu’s � rst Chinese New Year celebration by taking part in the Xin Nian Spring Festival.
The festival was held to celebrate Cebu’s Chinese heritage and the CX/Asia Miles booth at the venue helped publicise a local partner – Manny O Wines – with samples on o� er to visitors.
The Cebu team also sponsored a round-trip ticket to Hong Kong as the top prize in a ra� e which Manager Cebu Camilla Taylor presented to the winner.
The festival included a fashion show featuring authentic Chinese costumes and graceful Chinese dance perfor-mances.
Miles booth at the venue helped publicise a local partner – Manny O Wines – with samples on o� er to visitors.
The Cebu team also sponsored a round-trip ticket to Hong Kong as the top prize in a ra� e which Manager Cebu Camilla Taylor presented to the winner.
The festival included a fashion show The festival included a fashion show featuring authentic Chinese costumes and graceful Chinese dance perfor-and graceful Chinese dance perfor-mances.
Social responsibility on the riseCX Philippines is now o� cially a member of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) after Country Manager Ed Higgs received the membership plaque from PBSP Chairman of the Board Manuel V Pangilinan.
PBSP is the largest corporate-led social development foundation in the Philippines and the � rst of its kind in Asia. The foundation aims to promote the practice of corporate social responsibility and so far has assisted 6,500 social development projects throughout the country.
CX is the � rst airline to become a member of PBSP and the team plans to launch a countrywide CSR initiative later in the year.
The first A330 aircraft fitted with Cathay Pacific’s new Business Class cabin flew from Hong Kong to Sydney on 2 March, to rave reviews from passengers who were lucky enough to experience the new product.
On 17 March, the new Business Class demonstra-tion seats were given pride of place at a major charity event, Cycle for Smile, where 700 guests were invited to experience the comfort.
Two days later, the seats were moved to Sydney International Airport airside, where they remained until 25 March. During that time almost 200 people dropped by to “test-drive” the seats.
WINNING SMILES: (Above from left) David Figgins, award judge Jonathan Lorie, winning travel writer Steve Braunias and Adventure World’s Melissa Har-ris. (Right from left) Adventure World’s Melissa Harris, winning photographer Tessa Chrisp and David Figgins.
14
Jim Kong, Flight Attendant
1. Has your life changed
since you won the CX Singing Contest? Colleagues recognise me and ask me to sing a short song in the brie� ng room, during the � ight and even on the bus.
2. How do you deal with stage fright? I take a few deep breaths and tell myself my friends are in the audi-ence supporting me.
3. Do you write your own music? Yes. When I think of a tune, I’ll re-cord it on my iPhone just for fun.
4. Did you ever think of be-coming a full-time singer? No, I love my privacy too much. I also love working in the service industry and travelling.
5. Favourite songs? I like songs with a positive mes-sage – love songs by Taiwanese singer Leehom Wang and Mariah Carey. I like Hero and Through the Rain by Mariah Carey.
6. Do you sing in the shower?Yes, I do. I like the acoustics and the privacy.
7. How did you develop a love for music? My mom loves singing and listen-ing to music. So I grew up listen-ing to both Canto and English pop songs.
8. Did you learn any musical instruments? I took piano lessons for � ve years and violin lessons for two years.
9. Which outport do you like best? I like Japan. I love the people and the food and their products are well presented.
10. What makes you happy?Friends, family, my work and being healthy. The natural di-sasters in Japan have given me a strong appreciation of how lucky I am to be alive and to be loved by family and friends.
Lighting up lives with Mt Kinabalu climb It didn’t bode well for the � ve hardy souls from the cargo terminal project when they arrived at the foot of Mount Kinabalu late Friday night in pouring rain.
Luckily, by Saturday the skies had cleared and the group was able to set o� from the Park Hostel at day-break for the 4,095-metre climb.
There was a serious intent behind the long slog up Asia’s highest mountain. The � ve – Cargo Terminal Proj-ect Manager Ian Hunt, Project Manager Building Ser-vices Simon Siu, Project Manager Construction Darrel Kingan, Head of Engineering & IT Peter Lui, and Tommy Clark from Siemens – aimed to raise a considerable sum for the Hong Kong branch of the Lighthouse Club, a charity e� ort which supports those from the construc-tion industry who’ve fallen on hard times.
The e� ort was worth it, with close to HK$300,000 al-ready pledged and more money still to come in.
The tough hike to the 3,300m point took the team around four-and-a-half hours.
At this point they rested for the night before setting o� again at 2.30am – in pitch darkness – to get to the summit by 5.45am and see the day breaking over Sabah state.
“The temperature was close to freezing so we didn’t hang around for long!” says Ian.
After meeting their main objective of get-ting to the summit as a team, the � ve descend-ed by di� erent routes in good time for a few cold Tiger beers.
“It was a great experience and we thank ev-eryone who supported us – especially Siemens, who not only made a very generous pledge but also provided us with one of their top athletes in the shape of Tommy,” says Ian.
“The money raised will make a real di� erence to the Hong Kong Lighthouse Club.”
Patrick Wong, Assistant Corporate Sales Manager, REVPatrick began his airline career with the CX team at Kai Tak airport before working with several other airlines including British Airways.
“I am so delighted to rejoin the CX family and hope what I’ve learned during these years allows me to contribute and share with the team,” he says.
Patrick loves travelling, with Japan and Korea on top of his list.
“I also like gol� ng, hiking and hanging out with friends. And I have two lovely dogs – a three-year-old Corgi and a four-month-old Bichon Frise – to play with,” he adds.
Ross Leung, Operation Management Analyst, IMTRoss previously worked as operation support for Thomson Reuters so aviation is a totally new indus-try to him.
“However, both companies apply the Information Technology Infrastructure Library management approach so luckily it has not been hard for me to adapt to the new role,” Ross says.
He loves travelling and fondly remembers a trip to Bali in 2009. “I spent the week in Ubud enjoying early-morning treks, tasting delicious Balinese cuisine, exploring the markets and meeting local people – it was a wonderful trip,” he says.
Jack Ho, Training Specialist, ISDJack was a CX cabin crew based in Vancouver before working with the Airport Authority Hong Kong and Jardine Aviation Services.
“I feel great to be back at CX – it’s like coming home,” Jack says.
“As a Training Specialist with ISD I’m keen to apply the knowledge and experience I gained at Cathay Paci� c before and help our crew to develop their careers,” he adds.
CX World welcomes all new staff. Here is a selection of the newcomers who recently came on board...
Gallie Tam, Data Exploitation Analyst, CISBefore joining CX, Gallie was a business analyst and IT consultant. ”I am really excited to join CX. The working environment here is excellent and I am looking forward to helping colleagues dig out useful information from the CIS data,” she smiles.
A keen musician, Gallie plays the � ute/piccolo player in a local band.
“Keep an eye out for me when you see a free out-door concert in Hong Kong!” she says.
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o� again at 2.30am – in pitch darkness – to get to the summit by 5.45am and see the day breaking over Sabah
ting to the summit as a team, the � ve descend-ed by di� erent routes in good time for a few
“It was a great experience and we thank ev-eryone who supported us – especially Siemens, who not only made a very generous pledge but also provided us with one of their top athletes in
“The money raised will make a real di� erence to
HIGH LIFE: Cheers – and fears – from the fi ve who arrived at the summit in total darkness.
PLANE CRAZY: CPLP’s James Lee gets inspired by model aircraft as he readies himself for takeoff.
GOOD SHOT: Crew are impressed by Ali Bullock’s
array of photos from the Hong Kong Sevens.
BEACH BOYS: The Dubai Cargo team enjoys a day in the sun
at the Al Mamzar Beach Park.
TOUCHING MOMENT: Tony Tyler met
with Amy Silva in Vancouver who
recently left CX after 28 years. Tony
hired Amy when he set up the Van-
couver Airport offi ce in 1983.
LARGER THAN LIFE: The CCD team gets to grips with CX’s world-record-setting rugby ball.
Anchorage Cargo Sales & Service Agent May So is the proud mother of little Sebastian who was born in November last year.
“After 16 years with Cathay Paci� c, I discovered that the company does not have any goodies suitable for a baby so I decided to make something unique for him to wear,” May says.
“I’ve also made a nursery mobile using little CX stu� ed planes and he loves watching the planes go around his crib,” she adds.
Maybe there’s an idea for Marketing here!
Baby love
SEASON OPENER: The CX dragonboat team held a pig-cutting to celebrate the fi rst race of 2011.
FAREWELL: Manny Pinto poses with colleagues before ending a 23-year stint in Training.
SUPERMAN HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: Filipino cabin crew farewelled Tony Tyler with a framed
caricature of the former CE discarding his shirt to reveal a Superman outfi t.
A farewell event was held for Secretary Eva Chiu on 20 April with her fellow 9th � oor secretaries attending to wish her a happy
retirement. Over her 36 years at CX and Swire, Eva
was secretary to four senior managers, three of whom – David Turnbull, Tony Tyler and John Slosar – went on to become Chief Executive.
John presented Eva with a long-service coin and a Galaxy tablet, joking that she can use it to join the high-tech world.
Eva plans to devote her free time to voluntary work.
“I need to do something to stay busy,” she says.
“Though I also have some FOC tickets to use up so I’m going travelling � rst.”
Fond farewellA farewell event was held for Secretary Eva Chiu on 20 April with her fellow 9th � oor secretaries attending to wish her a happy
retirement.
was secretary to four senior managers, three
16
1. Visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand MosqueThis architectural work of art is one the world’s largest mosques, with a capacity for an aston-ishing 40,000 worshippers.
It features 80 domes, approximately 1,000 columns, 24-carat gold-plated chandeliers and the world’s largest hand-woven carpet.
Unlike other mosques in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is open to non-Muslims. Complimentary “walk-in” guided tours start at 10am, 11am and 5pm, Saturdays to Thursdays.
2. Hire a bicycle and ride along the Abu Dhabi CornicheRunning almost six kilometres in length, Abu Dhabi’s Corniche is dotted by refreshing public parks and beautiful fountains.
A fun and healthy way to tour the Corniche is to hire a bicycle from FunRideSports which has a wide selection to choose from including mountain bikes and city bikes which can hold several passengers.
Bike hire stations are along the Corniche boardwalk with charges by the hour.
3. Get a rush of speed at Ferrari World Abu DhabiUnder its sprawling, iconic roof, the world’s � rst Ferrari theme park – the largest indoor attrac-tion of its kind – features the world’s fastest rollercoaster, Formula Rossa, which can reach speeds up to 240 km/h.
Other attractions include Galleria Ferrari, res-taurants, cafés and the world’s largest Ferrari store.
4. Go on a desert safariStart with an exciting ride up and down some of the desert’s biggest dunes and try out the adventure sport of sand skiing.
Then stay overnight at a desert camp with a sumptuous barbecue, camel rides, falconry dis-plays and henna painting.
5. Tour the oasis city of Al AinAl Ain was once a vital oasis on the caravan route from the UAE to Oman.
The history of this lovely oasis city can be explored through visits to the 175-year-old Al Nahyan family fort, the Al Ain National Museum and a trip to the prehistoric tombs at Al Jahili Fort, known to be over 4,000 years old.
Visitors can also go to the camel market – one of the last few remaining.
■ Boutique living in DalatThe Empress Hotel, Dalat is o� ering CX sta� spe-
cial rates from US$35 for a superior room. The rate includes
breakfast and a welcome drink. The property is located on the Xuan
Huong Lake and is also close to the town centre and a golf course. Nearby attrac-tions include the well-known Dalat night market.
The boutique hotel is decorated in a colonial style with Italian tiles and an old wood � nish.
Dining options include a restaurant serving Vietnamese and European food with Dalat’s biggest Sunday brunch and a terrace bar o� ers views over the lake.
More information on Travel Desk.
■ Mystery, madness and murder in the park The Singapore Repertory The-atre is present-ing Macbeth in the grounds of Fort Canning Park until 22 May.
The audience can spread out a picnic blanket and enjoy an alfresco meal while watching one of Shakespeare’s most dazzling and mysteri-ous masterpieces.
Without the constraints of the tradi-tional theatre the supernatural thriller takes on an even faster pace and is even more exhilarating.
Find out more at www.srt.com.sg
■ Dazzling show is jumping Saltimbanco by Cirque du Soleil is currently touring Australia and will be in Melbourne from 25 May to 3 June.
Saltimbanco, which means “to jump on a bench”,
is a Cirque du Soleil signature show and was inspired by the urban fabric of the metropolis and its colourful inhabitants.
Staged at the Rod Laver Arena, this captivating show blends astounding feats of athleticism and acrobatics with the troupe’s � nesse and penchant for enchantment.
Find out more at www.cirquedusoleil.com/en
ENGAGING EMIRATE: The Emirates Palace dazzles with lights (top); thrills and spills at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi (above right); and the stunning Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (above).
ing Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. Visitors are ad-vised to to learn a bit about carpets by going to a number of shops to get a feel for price, quality and traditional designs, before making a � nal decision.
8. Tour the Heritage VillageRun by the Emirates Heritage Club, this recon-struction of a traditional oasis village includes a camp� re with co� ee pots, a goat hair tent and a falaj irrigation system.
Workshops with craftsmen demonstrating traditional skills are dotted throughout and the little spice shop is a treat with a wide range of dried herbs and handmade soap on o� er.
9. Dine Emirati-style at MezlaiThis was the � rst � ne-dining Emirati restaurant in Abu Dhabi and is located in the opulent sur-roundings of the Emirates Palace.
Diners can savour Emirati dishes prepared from � sh, meat, rice, and home-made bread freshly baked in the kitchen’s distinctive clay ovens.
10. Enjoy the camel races Cheer on the camels as they gallop around a specially made track, and marvel at how these seemingly ungainly creatures can reach such high speeds.
Races normally take place on weekend morn-ings and it’s best to get there early to soak up the atmosphere.
For a taste of this sport, head to the Al Wathba Camel Race Track about 45km east of Abu Dhabi on the Al Ain Road.
6. Go on a speedboat tourExperience the thrill of a speedboat ride with Yellow Boats tours.
The company can tailormake tours for a va-riety of occasions including visiting the new Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibition centre on Saa-diyat Island or exploring Abu Dhabi’s stunning coastline.
7. Visit the carpet soukBuying a carpet can be a fascinating experience and the Carpet Souk at the port end of Mina Road o� ers an exquisite array of designs and colours.
It is easy to spend a day here admiring the many carpets from around Central Asia includ-
As Cathay Pacifi c prepares to launch fl ights to Abu Dhabi on 2 June, CX World explores the 10 best things to see and do on a visit to the capital of the UAE – and offers staff the chance to win a trip of a lifetime
To celebrate the launch of Cathay Paci� c’s four-times-weekly service to Abu Dhabi on 2 June, CX World is o� ering two Busi-ness Class round-trip tickets with three-night’s accommodation at the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi (pictured left).
To truly enjoy everything Abu Dhabi has to o� er, the winner will also be taken on a guided tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibition on Saadiyat Is-land as well as receiving two tickets to Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.
To enter the lucky draw, please send an email to Sta� Com-munication Team Group (CCD#SCT) with the subject line “Abu Dhabi” by 31 May and tell us the name of the Mediterranean restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Special thanks to the Abu Dhabi Tourism Association and the Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi for their generous support.
Abu Dhabi calling
SHOW US YOUR TIPS!CX World welcomes sta� travel tips from across the network – email us at CCD#SCT
cial rates from US$35 for a superior room. The rate includes
