A job applicant is tested during a Cathay Pacific Airways cabin crew recruitment event in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Aug 25, 2023. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG – Cathay Pacific Airways’ first batch of more than 100 cabin crew from the Chinese mainland have completed a seven-week training course and gradually started working this month, serving both domestic and international routes.

Mandy Ng Kit-man, Cathay’s director of service delivery, said that in view of the increasing number of Mandarin-speaking customers, the company hopes to employ more than 1,500 mainland cabin crew by 2025, making the mainland the second-largest source of cabin crew.

Cathay Pacific, the city’s largest carrier, launched its "2023 Chinese Mainland Talent Recruitment Plan" with the target of recruiting 200-300 cabin crew in the Chinese mainland last year.

By holding its first large-scale recruitment campaign for flight attendants on the mainland in August, it received over 2,000 applications and hired over 100. 

Ng said that the seven-week paid induction training included safety, emergency or service training, which is consistent with that of staff of other nationalities, and the company hopes to follow through on the quality of the training and maintain the service standards of the trainees.  

By 2025, the company aims to increase its mainland workforce to 4,000 people, including positions such as trainee pilots, engineering staff, IT staff and customer service

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Su, a first-time cabin crew member from Guangzhou, said she chose to work in Hong Kong due to its proximity and her appreciation of the company culture. She said that the training is mainly conducted in English and staff are not requested to learn Cantonese. She also believed that Cantonese will be used in daily communication and it will not be hard for her mainland colleagues to learn.

Wu, who is from Nanjing and used to work for European airlines, has officially started his work. The first leg of his job was to serve Hong Kong flights to and from Kuala Lumpur. Ng said that a Hong Kong passenger had once asked him for a blanket but he misinterpreted it as a "towel" as their pronunciation are similar in Mandarin. He then realized the importance of improving his Cantonese to help him integrate into Hong Kong life.

Cathay’s employment requirements of mainland cabin crew include fluency in Mandarin, conversational and reading English, and third language skills are preferred. The salary ranges from HK$17,000 ($2,172) to HK$20,000per month.

Cathay Pacific has previously been involved in a discrimination controversy, as three flight attendants mocked passengers who did not speak English.

The company has since apologized repeatedly and set up an inter-departmental working group to improve the situation, including taking measures like expanding the scope of Mandarin service and prioritizing the addition of Mandarin-speaking cabin crew on flights to and from the mainland.

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By 2025, the company aims to increase its mainland workforce to 4,000 people, including positions such as trainee pilots, engineering staff, IT staff and customer service.

Currently, Cathay Pacific is undergoing a company-wide rebuilding and manpower replenishment and has organized flight attendant recruitment campaigns in Beijing and Guangzhou since January.

As for residency, mainland workers who are admitted can choose the HKSAR as their place of residence, or other cities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with a commuting time of less than 90 minutes from Hong Kong International Airport.

By the end of 2023, Cathay Pacific had restored about 70 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity, with passenger flights to Hong Kong being restored to about 90 percent of the normal capacity, according to Ng.

Compared to flight attendants, Cathay Pacific has a more pressing need for pilots. Since mid-December, the company has been canceling multiple flights on a daily basis, primarily due to underestimating the number of standby pilots required during the peak period of influenza.

As of December 2023, the company’s total number of pilots has decreased by approximately 40 percent compared to 2019.

Ronald Lam, chief executive of the Cathay Pacific Group, said earlier that the airline would also recruit pilots from the mainland. For the first time, the company also accepted applications from mainland residents for its trainee pilots program last year.

Following an increase of more than 4,000 staff last year, the carrier expects to add another 5,000 or more this year.

Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com