October 2014 - Cathay Pacific

October 2014, Issue 222
A magazine for staff and friends of Cathay Pacific Airways
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ICE Brent
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Apr/14
Oct/14
Forging deeper ties
Chief Executive Ivan Chu met with Wang
Zhiqing, Vice Minister of Civil Aviation
Administration of China (CAAC), in Beijing
on 15 September.
Ivan introduced to Vice Minister Wang the
rich history and recent developments of the
Cathay Pacific Group.
The Vice Minister spoke highly of
Cathay Pacific’s efforts in promoting the
communication and business interactions
between Hong Kong and Mainland China
over the last few decades.
The delegation discussed topics covering
the aviation industry’s future opportunities
and challenges, along with insights from
both private and public sectors.
Ivan also took the opportunity to present
the “Spirit of Hong Kong” aircraft model
to Vice Minister Wang as a souvenir, and
invited him to visit Cathay City in the future.
General Manager International Affairs
Arnold Cheng and General Manager China
Paul Loo also attended the meeting, along
with Head of CAAC Hong Kong, Macau and
Taiwan Affairs Office Ding Ming.
Chief Executive
Message
PRD push continues
Contribution grows as team assesses opportunities and challenges
The Pearl River Delta region continues to grow
in importance for Cathay Pacific’s passenger
business, recently entering the top five sales
territories in terms of revenue generation.
The region has enjoyed double-digit revenue
growth to date in 2014, driven by the spending
power of its comparatively wealthy population
of 60 million people and boosted by the opening of a CX sales office in Shenzhen earlier this
year.
“It’s been a strong performance so far this
year, though we are aware of challenges that
lie ahead such as the slowing Chinese economy
and increasing competition from other carriers offering direct services,” says Manager Pearl
River Delta Steve Xiong.
Steve explains that demand for travel has
been on the rise out of the PRD – from a growing corporate base as well as migrants, students
and other independent travellers – and that CX
is well-positioned to capture demand through
its comprehensive network and frequency advantage out of HKIA.
Many travellers who live in the southern part
of the PRD still prefer to travel out of Hong
Kong, making good use of the ever-improving
infrastructure that includes ferry services and
more than 500 daily coaches and limousine services to HKIA.
“Dragonair’s two daily flights from Guangzhou have also proved to be a popular means of
connecting from the northern part of the PRD
into HKIA, but we have seen increasing competition from the growth in airports and carriers in
the region,” Steve says.
The PRD team is keeping a close eye on travel
trends, with a recent shift away from Southeast
Asian destinations to North Asia, and a surge in
demand to the USA and other long-haul destinations.
Groups used to make up the bulk of traffic
but, with improving language proficiency and
access to travel information, individual travellers are becoming more common, particularly
among the younger generation.
Premium traffic accounts for a relatively small
share of the overall business, “but with expanding corporate accounts and increasing wealth,
the potential for CX is significant, especially
given our superior products and services,” Steve
explains.
Those products and services have been
pushed hard by the PRD team, which has
have been busy spreading the word about CX
through the travel trade and close engagement
with media partners.
“We have been making continuous investments for both CX and KA in the PRD – from the
Shenzhen office to marketing initiatives – and
our young and growing team has been working
hard to drive the business improvement,” Steve
explains.
DYNAMIC DELTA: The PRD team pictured with GGT colleagues at a recent event to bid farewell to outgoing manager Maggie Yeung.
This month sees Cathay Pacific make
another inroad into the hugely
important North American market.
Our new freighter service to Calgary
launches on 17 October, making us
the only carrier to operate west-bound
freighters from Alberta province to
the Far East. We see high potential for
carrying everything from heavy oil and
gas field equipment to chilled meat
shipments on our state-of-the-art 7478F freighters.
The launch of this latest destination
underscores the tremendous effort we
have made to open up new airfreight
markets during what has been a very
difficult few years for the industry.
“Chasing the freight” has become the
rallying call for our Cargo team who
have done a sterling job in strengthening our network despite demand
remaining in a continued slump.
The Calgary launch also highlights
the fundamental importance of North
America to the future of Cathay Pacific,
for both our cargo and passenger
businesses. This year has seen us making a huge leap in capacity to North
America – and the US in particular – as
we make good use of Hong Kong’s
hub position to connect the world’s
most vibrant economies.
After a modest beginning – our
North America adventure started in
1983 with a weekly passenger service
to Vancouver – we now have seven
passenger destinations in the US and
Canada offering a total of 104 flights
per week. We introduced a significant
increase in capacity to the US this
summer, adding one more daily flight
to Los Angeles and three more flights a
week to Chicago, and we have already
announced that a new service to
Boston will launch next May. That is a
big expression of our commitment to
the market.
On the cargo side our growth has
been equally impressive. In addition to
three points in Canada we now serve
nine points in the US, and within the
past year we have successfully developed a new airfreight lane between
Mexico and the Far East.
This combination of a strong
network and a highly efficient fleet
puts us in the best possible position to
connect Asia with North America; it’s
an advantage we have worked hard to
build – and it’s one we intend to keep.
Ivan Chu 3
Security Ops go 24/7
New combined CX/KA team responds to growing security challenges
Security is one of the most important issues affecting the airline
industry today.
From the day-to-day challenge
of keeping flights safe to ensuring
strict adherence to ever-changing
international requirements, the
demands placed on the airline security team is growing all the time.
In Hong Kong, the operations of
both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair
continue to grow, with the airlines
moving ever closer to a roundthe-clock operation.
In response to this growing
challenge, the integration of the
CX and KA Security Operations
teams took place in August, and
from 14 September the newly created Corporate Security Operations Team (SEC Ops Team) began
providing 24/7 coverage for all CX
and KA operations at Hong Kong
International Airport. It also provides support to all outports.
The SEC Ops team has 17 staff
under the leadership of Mary
Kwok, Security Manager Operations. Mary is supported by five
Assistant Security Managers and
11 Security Officers.
LEED cert for
Paris lounge
The Cathay Pacific lounge at Paris’
Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport has
been LEED certified to the Silver level.
“This is a great achievement as
not only is this consistent with our
commitment to consider green
standards for our new buildings and
refurbishments, this is also the first and
only airport lounge in the world that
has received LEED certification to date,”
Chief Executive Ivan Chu said.
The LEED rating system, developed
by the US Green Building Council
(USGBC), is the foremost programme for
the design, construction and operation
of green buildings.
The CDG lounge received LEED
certification for implementing
strategies that ranked highly in terms
of sustainable site development, water
savings, energy efficiency, materials
selection and indoor environmental
quality.
Examples include controlling energy
efficiency by incorporating the use
of natural light in the design, using
LED lighting and installing movement
sensors and meters.
“We’ve worked on this for three
years, and this is recognition of the
time, effort and investment put in by
our Property Services, Product and
Paris Airport teams, as well as the hard
work of our suppliers and contractors,”
said Chris Leung, Property Planning &
Projects Manager.
Planning of the lounge refurbishment
started in 2010, and it was officially
opened in September 2012.
A specialist LEED consultant was
employed to guide the project team to
incorporate sustainable practices in the
project.
“The green building movement
offers an unprecedented opportunity
to respond to the most important
challenges of our time, including global
climate change, dependence on nonsustainable and expensive sources of
energy and threats to human health,”
said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO &
Founding Chair, USGBC.
“The work of innovative building
projects such as the Cathay Pacific
lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport is a
fundamental driving force in the green
building movement.”
More than 44,000 projects are
currently participating in the
commercial and institutional LEED
rating systems, comprising over eight
billion square feet of construction space
in 120 countries worldwide.
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Manager Corporate Security
Tony Blackiston explains that the
SEC Ops team supports Corporate
Security in Head Office to ensure
compliance with corporate, national and international requirements designed to prevent acts
of unlawful interference with civil
aviation – hijacking and hostage
taking to name just two.
“The SEC Ops Team also interacts with many government bodies, private organisations and individuals to ensure the safety and
months ago after working for a
number of security organisations
in Hong Kong and overseas, says
he has been “surprised and encouraged by the ability, dedication and enthusiasm” shown by
operational security staff at both
CX and KA.
“I encourage you to continue to
support the team and seek their
assistance when necessary. Together we can make the working
environment safe, secure and incident free,” Tony says.
security of our staff, passengers
and to protect corporate assets,”
says Tony.
The SEC Ops Team responsibilities are varied, with staff needing
to respond to specific security incidents as well as continually reviewing security procedures, monitoring security service providers,
support other departments during
major incidents and keeping management informed of any security
vulnerabilities found.
Tony, who joined CX eight
IN CONTROL: Staff from Security’s Head Office and SEC Ops teams.
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Always on the alert at HKIA
To get an idea of the scope of the work of the CX/KA Security Operations
team, CX World followed Assistant Security Manager Sam Yung to find
out what happens in a typical day at the airport.
Sam may be asked at any time to handle an unruly passenger, stop
possible illegal immigrants, investigate inflight thefts, respond to
intoxicated passengers or inflight smokers, and assist with cases of
indecent or physical assault.
6.30am
Sam starts duty and his first task
is to meet a Paris flight on which
a passenger failed to follow the
safety instructions of a crew
member. Sam and the Security
Officer are told that the passenger
repeatedly refused to fasten his
seat belt when asked by the crew.
The police are called and
the passenger is taken away for
further investigation.
CX has a “zero tolerance” policy
towards unruly behaviour by
passengers and Sam issues the
passenger a letter of Refusal of
Carriage for future CX and KA
flights.
This type of incident is not
unusual – during the last 12
months the SEC Ops team
attended a total of 216 security
incidents at HKIA.
9.30am
Sam is advised by colleagues that
while reservations and check-in
systems were being reviewed to
monitor possible illegal entry, two
passengers bound for Toronto
are found to have a suspicious
itinerary.
denied travel as a result of improper
or fraudulent travel documents.
The intervention by the SEC Ops
Team saved CX HK$5.9m during 2013.
The SEC Ops Team also works
closely with the Financial Services
and eBusiness departments to
combat fraudulent internet booking
transactions, with around 60 targeted
flights reviewed each day to detect
any suspicious bookings.
In 2013, the SEC Ops Team
identified 219 fraudulent transactions
and saved CX HK$1.6m.
12.00pm
Sam and a Security Officer stop
the passengers at the boarding gate
and Sam notices that the Canadian
visitor visas in their passports are
counterfeit. The passengers are
offloaded and handed to the Hong
Kong Immigration Department.
Airlines are subject to Immigration
fines for carrying passengers found to
have incorrect travel documentation
for the receiving country, and are
also responsible for the detention
costs and repatriation expenses for
such passengers. The SEC Ops Team
profiles around 40 flights per day to
identify passengers who might be
using a fraudulent travel document,
intercepting them at check-in
counters, boarding gates or even
during transit.
In 2013, SEC intercepted 2,678
passengers for enhanced travel
document checks. Of these, 213 were
Sam is on the move again after a
scan of the check-in system reveals
that two theft suspects have made
a reservation on a flight to Kuala
Lumpur. Sam works with the Airport
Police to mount a covert operation.
The suspects are observed by Sam
and the team during embarkation
and one of them is caught red
handed trying to steal
cash from a passenger’s
cabin baggage that had
just been stowed in the
overhead compartment.
Both suspects are handed
to the police who were on
standby at the boarding
gate.
Sam recalls another
interesting case, where
a female Malaysian
passenger, who was
suspected of internet
ticket fraud and inflight
duty free sales deception, was
stopped by the SEC Ops Team at
HKIA.
The Security Officer noticed a large
number of credit cards in her bag and
called for police assistance. A total of
67 counterfeit cards and a counterfeit
British passport were found in her
possession. She was arrested and
later sentenced to four years and four
months of imprisonment.
3.00pm
Sam goes to the apron area to check
aircraft for unauthorised persons,
check the inflight sales carts and
ensure that cargo shipments have not
been tampered with.
Before finishing his shift, Sam
is asked to provide assistance to
arrange escorts for deportees from
Canada to China. It’s been a long day,
but a fruitful one, and he’s looking
forward to getting home for some
well-deserved rest.
30 years of
747 flying
Senior pilot honoured by Boeing
There was a big surprise in store for Senior
Captain Frank Cassidy (pictured left) when he
was invited to attend a briefing by Boeing at
Cathay City last month.
The occasion was a talk by Boeing’s 747
Chief Pilot Mark Feuerstein on the 747-8F programme. What Frank didn’t expect was that
he would be called up on stage in recognition
of a major personal milestone – his becoming the first pilot in the world to complete 30
years of flying on the Jumbo.
“I knew from Mark Hoey [General Manager
Operations in FOP] that something might be
going on, but they managed to keep the details under wraps,” Frank explains.
“It was a lovely surprise to be
called to the stage, particularly
when Mark Feuerstein presented
me with a model of the Dash 8
which had been signed
by Joe Sutter, the father
of the 747. I feel proud
and privileged to
have received such
recognition.”
Frank is a true
CX veteran having
joined the airline in
1979 as a First Officer on
the L1011 TriStar, moving across to the 747 in
1984. At that stage CX
had just eight 747-200
passenger aircraft and one 747 freighter in
the fleet.
And so began Frank’s three-decade journey
on the world’s most iconic commercial aircraft. He became a captain on the -200 “Classic” in 1987 and later spent more than 20 years
as a checker and trainer on the fleet.
During his time in CX he has flown every
variant of the 747 operated by the airline –
and confesses that he’s never felt any real urge
to move across to another fleet.
Frank says that he’s always had a lot of
respect for the 747 in terms of its build and
reliability and the sheer thrill of flying the machine.
“It handles so beautifully and is such a predictable airplane,” he says. “As for the
8F, it’s like moving from a Jaguar to
a Ferrari – it’s a real step change in
everything from the way it handles
to the scale and performance.”
After a long and always-interesting flying career, Frank
is now looking forward to a
relaxing retirement, with
just the occasional stint in
a light aircraft to keep his
aviation passion alive.
“I count myself as very
fortunate … I’ve had one of
the best jobs in aviation for
35 years and I’m leaving on
a high,” he smiles.
Swire China Conference looks ahead
The fourth Swire China Conference titled
“China: Looking Ahead” was held at The
Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou on 8 August. This year’s conference was the largest ever,
attended by more than 160 senior executives
from Swire’s various business divisions. Held every two years, the Swire China
Conference is a platform for colleagues who
manage businesses in China to learn about
the latest developments in the country.
It also helps facilitate the flow of
ideas among different Swire group
companies.
Swire Chairman John Slosar
gave a quick overview of the context
of the Group’s developments in
Mainland China.
He said that the company has
invested
significantly
in
different
businesses in China, which shows its
confidence and commitment to the market.
Looking ahead, the Group will continue
to let the quality of Swire management shine
through, and provide services and products
that are relevant to Chinese consumers.
He further encouraged managers to build
great teams, stay with the company’s long term
approach, be mentally flexible and focus on
quality, productivity and cost efficiency.
Other speakers included Adrian Harley,
Director and Chief Representative of John
Swire & Sons; Sun Tong, Vice Director, Hong
Kong & Macau Affairs Department, Ministry of
Commerce of the People’s Republic of China;
Martin Jacques, author of international
bestseller “When China Rules the
World”; and John Spelich, Group Vice
President of the Alibaba Group. Topics ranged from trends and
challenges of Chinese economic
development to e-commerce and
sustainability businesses in China. More than 160 attendees from 34 Swire
group companies joined the Swire China
Conference, including Baroness Lydia
Dunn, Director of John Swire & Sons;
Merlin Swire, Director of John Swire &
Sons; and John Slosar, Chairman of John
Swire & Sons (HK).
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Letters to the Editor
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“This time I’d like to turn
things around by thanking a
passenger on flight CX238 from
London to Hong Kong on 20
September,” she smiles.
A sick passenger’s condition
deteriorated when the flight
was still four hours away from
Hong Kong.
“We tried our best to treat
the passenger by contacting
Medlink and followed the
instructions given,” Josephine
recalls.
“We applied the first aid
knowledge that we learned
from training school. However,
when it came to injection and
IV drips, we needed a medical
professional to help us.
“On this flight, we were very
fortunate to have a professor
of medicine who agreed to help
when we approached him,” she
says.
“He was our hero and we
were all very grateful for his kind
assistance and support up till the
aircraft landed in Hong Kong.”
The sick passenger was finally
handed over to the medical team
on the ground.
“This passenger is also one of
our most valued customers who
celebrated his one-millionth
mile with us on that flight. A
truly loyal customer!” says
Josephine.
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“CX World often publishes
stories on how CX staff
helped our passengers in
challenging situations. Very
often, our passengers write
complimentary letters to
express their appreciation too,”
says Josephine, pictured below.
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London-based Inflight
Services Manager
Josephine Rafudi
wrote to thank a
frequent flyer for
coming to a sick
passenger’s rescue.
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6
Location, location, location
Will CX consider to change its stand-by counters
from landside to individual boarding gates? I
used to be a ground staff and know that many
flights offload no-show passengers. Switching
the standby counter to the boarding gate allows
us to give those empty seats to ID passengers.
Perhaps this measure can apply to ID travellers without check-in baggage; while those with
check-in luggage can use standby baggage tags.
Cabin crew
Missed
connections
It would seem these days that our
telephone system has become ever
more difficult to use from a customer point of view.
Recently I tried to amend an existing revenue booking. This could
not be done online so I needed to
call our Reservations hotline. I was
quite surprised that it took around
20 minutes on hold to actually get
through to speak to someone.
This morning, for a different
booking, I have twice tried to call
the Marco Polo Club; both times the
call has been directed to voice mail,
with the request to leave my details
for someone to call me back. I’m still
waiting.
I know from friends in Hong Kong
that they find this extremely frustrating. Surely if we provide such a
service to our customers it should
be an efficient, professional and of
course a pleasant experience.
Flight crew
Simon Kriss, Manager Global
Contact Centre replies: Your view
of our reservations line is very accurate and certainly echoed by customers across social media. There is
a twin path approach to fixing this
and we are working on both.
First is to get our Global Contact
Centre running more efficiently, effectively and with the right staffing
level, and the second is to continuously enhance the functionality on
Russ Fortson, Manager Customer Services
& Product Development – Airports replies:
Airports’ view is “Yes”! We want this too, and are
working to make this happen wherever it is permissible by local authorities after the cutover to
Altéa Customer Management (CM).
Many airlines around the world already process
staff standby passengers in this manner and it is
proven to be the optimal approach to maximise
the utilisation of available seats.
However, it is important to note that in many
airports, including Hong
Kong, this will not be possible in the short term
because of restrictions imposed by the respective
local authorities. Fortunately, with the
move to CM, we will have
the technical capability to
effectively facilitate staff
standby clearance at the
boarding gate, which is
the first step.
our website. All of this is not easy in a climate
of fiscal prudence (and a climate
of typhoons and other disruptors);
however it is something we need
to do and are working on it as a
matter of priority.
Steve Rackstraw, Head of Member Services, replies: The Marco
Polo Club Service Centre is working hard to maintain service levels,
but our hotlines can be very busy
during peak hours of 10am to 4pm,
Hong Kong time. Outside those
times, members should not have to
wait very long, if at all, for their call
to be answered. Alternatively, members could contact us via email.
Outdated
browsers
We keep hearing about the
considerable
investment
the
company is making in IT. Can we
ask IMT when will the company
update the internet browser from
the current IE8 that we use?
It is becoming increasingly
frustrating to be told when
accessing various websites for
company-related activities that our
browser does not support the site.
Frustrated outport staff
Mark
Griffith,
Head
of
Infrastructure & Operations,
replies: As part of the Infrastructure
Star Letter prize
The winner of the CX World Star
Letter scores a bottle of Murray
Street White Label Barossa
Shiraz 2008.
This Barossa Shiraz won the
Gold Medal for Best Business
Class Red Wine at the 2013
Cellar in the Sky Awards.
The fruits of this wine
are sourced from nine
differently managed blocks
from a variety of fantastic
vineyards, giving the wine
great complexity.
On the palate, cherries
and plums tantalise,
supported by chocolate and
coffee nuances. This is an
elegantly structured wine
with generous weight and length.
ISD will be offering a bottle of wine
from CX’s Business Class selection every
month for the Star Letter winner, so
watch this space!
2020 programme, IMT will be
upgrading the current desktop
from Windows XP to Windows 8.1,
which includes the latest internet
browser (IE11). A pilot will commence by the
end of the year and the full scale
rollout will be in 2015.
Stay tuned for more information
on this in the coming months. If
you have an immediate problem in
using the current browser version,
please contact the Service Centre
for a temporary solution.
Open
competition
I dislike the lack of choice and
quality that our current “one stop
shop” policy provides and was
wondering if we could open up the
CX City food court for independent
competition.
I would love to see a proper
barista-manned coffee stall or an
unpopular food store replaced with
a new idea.
I propose that the space be run
like any other food court, with
independent year-long leases for
each stall.
Matthew Culver, IMT
Irene Ip, Manager Property &
Services, replies: Thanks for your
feedback and for the opportunity
to explain why the staff canteen is
run the way it is.
The main objective for our staff
canteen is to provide safe, reliable,
healthy and appetising catering at a
reasonable cost for colleagues.
The CX City canteen began with
six catering operators on site, but
staff feedback was unfavourable.
While popular food stalls were
unable to cope with the huge
amount of orders during peak
hours, other entities couldn’t
survive due to lower popularity
KA breaks records this summer
and poorer quality.
Survey results indicated that
the diversified operation was not
suitable and effective for a staff
canteen. CX management then
made the decision to appoint a
reputable and reliable caterer as a
single-source operator.
Our objective – then and now – is
to ensure that the canteen is able
to cope with scale of the operation,
while being able to uniformly
respond to calls for improvement in
quality and variety.
The operator also has to be
reliable, resourceful, flexible and
focused on hygiene and safety.
Furthermore,
the
kitchen’s
infrastructure is built with a staff
canteen model in mind, instead of
multiple commercial food stores.
Regular meetings with the
operator have been conducted
to address operational issues,
staff expectations, complaints,
varieties, as well as staff feedback
and suggestions. We will keep on
reviewing and exploring suitable
varieties as suitable.
We currently have three operators
serving coffee at Cathay City.
When their lease is about to
end, competitive tenders will be
processed.
Messy email
footers
I’ve
noticed
that there is a
huge range of
styles for email
footers sent
out by our
staff. Different
fonts, different
formats, even different colours – it
all looks very messy and doesn’t
really project a professional image
either externally or internally.
Is it possible for IMT to develop
a system that automatically
generates an email footer with all
the key details – name, title, contact
numbers, company logo – included
in a standardised format for emails
going outside the company?
At the same time can they ensure
staff take the Henry Ford approach
to font colours in emails – any colour
as long as it’s black!
CCD staff
Dragonair broke a number of records this summer peak, including new highs for net revenue,
load factor and passenger numbers in August.
“In August, Dragonair achieved its highest
passenger traffic and capacity since the integration with CX, and the average monthly load factor hit 79% – the highest we’ve seen so
far this year,” says Patricia
Hwang, General Manager Revenue Management. “The passenger number reached 845,000,
which was also a new monthly record.”
Thailand and Taiwan were the most in-demand destinations for KA passengers this
summer.
“Phuket and Taichung were the most
popular, while Jeju, Chengdu, Kunming,
Haikou and Wenzhou also enjoyed
good loads,” says Patricia.
Denpasar, which came online in April, saw the
load factor gradually improving from 50% in
April to 71% in August.
Looking ahead, three more weekly flights will
be added to Siem Reap in the winter schedule,
taking it to a daily service.
Two more weekly Phnom Penh flights will be
added to the existing 10 starting January 2015.
The life aquatic
KA Flight Attendant Leona Tam’s love of water
sports reached a whole new level when she
took up scuba diving last year.
Already an avid fan of canoeing and
wakeboarding, Leona fell for scuba
diving in a big way when she did a
discovery course in Cairns last year.
“The underwater beauty of the
Great Barrier Reef simply blew me
away!” says Leona.
Over time, she also learnt to enjoy
the tranquillity of the world below the
waves.
“It is colourful yet silent – all you hear is
the sound of your own breathing,” she says.
“Despite the silence, divers from different
places of the world are able to communicate
with each other in the universal ‘divers sign
language’ that removes all language barriers
– that’s another beautiful aspect of scuba
diving.”
The passionate diver has visited popular
dive sites in Phuket and the Philippines,
but her favourite is the lesser-known Liuqiu
Island in Taiwan.
“The waters surrounding Liuqiu Island are
rife with sea creatures such as sea turtles. It
is a potent reminder that human beings have
a responsibility to protect our planet,” says
Leona.
Dennis Owen, Manager Brand, replies: I’m glad you asked that question. Bringing about email footer
consistency in style and colour is
definitely on the list to be fixed from
a brand perspective. There will be
one unified format coming out in
the next few weeks, so please stay
tuned for details.
7
Cathay Pacific 2014 Alignme
ALIGNMENT
3,318 Hong Kong ground staff responded to our seven Alignment categories. Figures in pie charts are from Hong Kong ground staff only.
Long-term direction
Senior leadership
Team leadership
Team effectiveness
Performance focus
Are the Company’s overall
strategies clearly explained
to employees?
How well do senior leaders
inspire the best performance
from employees?
Are managers trustworthy?
Do they build teamwork and
care for their employees?
Do teams achieve goals,
deliver service quality and
improve productivity?
Do we respond to new ideas and
changing customer needs?
Are we outwardly focused?
2%
3%
5%
5%
4%
5%
9%
6%
10%
22%
24%
3%
5%
11%
8%
23%
5%
4%
6%
8%
28%
20%
28%
2%
7%
Investment in people Investment in systems
Do we attract, retain and
develop the right people
to remain successful ?
4%
3%
6%
8%
15%
23%
27% 43%
26%
30%
32%
38% 50%
35% 50%
32% 47%
Comparison of 2014 alignment scores from HK and outports.
Percentage scores by category for top two boxes (scores 6 & 7)
3,318
Outport ground staff
29%
24%
20% 33%
1
Strongly
agree
2
3
4
5
6
7
6,931 ground staff completed the full survey by giving a score for both Alignment and Engagement.
A further 7,887 frontline staff answered the 20 Engagement questions.
Hong Kong & Outports, 2011 vs 2014 result comparison
Some questions from the seven alignment categories with responses from the top two “agree” levels
2014 responses are generally positive but trending downward compared to 2011
Alignment is generally positive. but trending downward compared to 2011.
49%
Hong Kong ground staff - 2011
Long term direction
%
2014
Performance focus
Our products and services successfully
differentiate us from our competitors or peers
58
%
2011
21
%
2011
54
%
2011
0
58%
10
44%
20
30
40
50
Outport alignment by regions
Percentage who chose the top two “agree” levels
43%
2014
38%
China
651 staff
Europe
406 staff
31%
Japan
293 staff
%
2014
Team leadership
The person I report to builds teamwork
29%
Outport ground staff - 2011
Outport ground staff - 2014
%
Investment in people
The organisation has effective plans for
developing and retaining its people
Hong Kong ground staff - 2014
Alignment
I understand how my role contributes to the
organisation’s long term goals and strategies
58
22%
19% 38%
Strongly
Disagree
Hong Kong
ground staff
Some Alignment questions (Hong Kong ground staff)
%
2011
10%
14%
26%
20%
29% 44%
Hong Kong ground staff
16%
17%
26%
29% 46%
5%
10%
24%
29%
33%
Do our systems and their
supporting teams allow
employees to do their job well?
%
2014
49%
36%
North America
Taiwan & Korea
388 staff
636 staff
64%
South Asia,
Middle East
& Africa
514 staff
44%
South East Asia
512 staff
45%
South West Pacific
213 staff
ent and Engagement Survey
MESSAGE FROM
THE DIRECTOR
ENGAGEMENT
The results indicate how committed employees are to the organisation, promoting
and acting in its best interests. The engagement survey was open to all staff.
Results by levels of staff
KA
Flight Crew
KA
Cabin Crew
KA
KA
Hong Kong Ground Staff
Outports Ground Staff
Flight Crew
CX
Cabin Crew
CX
KA
Flight Crew
KA
Cabin Crew
KA
KA
Hong Kong Ground Staff
Outports Ground Staff
Flight Crew
CX
Cabin Crew
Willing to do extra work to help succeed
KA
KA
Flight Crew
29% 32%
Cabin Crew
KA
Hong Kong Ground Staff
19%
KA
Cabin Crew
CX
Outports Ground Staff
Flight Crew
52%
CX
0
34%
HKIA CSOs
KA
10
48%
CX
20
Hong Kong Ground Staff
Flight Crew
30
66%
53%
50
40
CX KA Total : 48%
69%
CX
70
40% 38%
KA
27% 27%
0
60
Cabin Crew
KA
Flight Crew
CX
Cabin Crew
CX
0
HKIA CSOs
CX
10
CX
20
HKG Ground Staff
30
43%
38%
CX
Outports Ground Staff
40
43%
12%
CX
KA
10
HKIA CSOs
20
25%
CX
Flight Crew
KA
30
HKG Ground Staff
31% 31%
52%
Hong Kong Ground Staff
48%
50
40%
54%
47%
41%
CX
40
CX KA Total : 56%
63%
60
KA
Desire for more access to training and development
Concern over promotion and retention of skilled employees
Ineffective reward and recognition practices
Need to improve internal communication and increase
transparency in decision making
5. Misalignment between resources and workload
6. A need to focus on revenue management and revenue
generation as well as cost management
7. Better visibility of reasons for investment in
IT systems
Outports Ground Staff
1.
2.
3.
4.
69%
65%
33%
CX KA Total : 42%
63%
50
Cabin Crew
KA
HKG Ground Staff
KA
Outports Ground Staff
Flight Crew
CX
Cabin Crew
22%
39%
47%
View challenges as learning experiences
70
30%
60
CX
0
30%
HKIA CSOs
CX
10
CX
20
HKG Ground Staff
Outports Ground Staff
30
We asked what was the most
important issue the current leadership team
should address in 2014-15. Out of 3,000 +
comments you mostly talked about...
39%
CX
50
40
70
58%
55%
HKIA CSOs
0
37%
CX
10
Hong Kong Ground Staff
20
CX
30
CX KA Total : 44%
60
Nick Rhodes
The percentages show the number of staff who strongly agree (scores 6 & 7).
In general, the higher the staff level, the greater the sense of alignment and engagement.
Engagement
Hong Kong
29%
Outport
44%
Hong Kong
41%
Outport
56%
51%
Level A
63%
Level B
Level C
Level D
Level E +
47% 41%
32%
Level A
60%
77% 80% 74%
Level B
73%
Level C
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Level D
40%
Level A
48%
Level B
Level C
Level D
Level E +
Level A
Level B
Level C
Level D
40% 33%
30% 23%
58%
62% 59%
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Level E +
Alignment
Level E +
40
54%
Sense of belonging
70
The infographic on these pages is a general snapshot of the 2014 survey.
I encourage all staff to log on to IntraCX (see under Zone Hightlights) for a
more comprehensive set of data.
50%
50
CX KA Total : 55%
67%
63%
55%
60
Job satisfaction
The 2014 survey shows a significant number of issues that need to be
addressed. These include better communication of company strategy and
regular progress reports; better communication of the IT strategy and why it is
necessary to spend on modern infrastructure and new systems; and finally,
how to recognise, reward and retain high-performing staff.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
70
Outports Ground Staff
However, responses from Head Office employees at Levels A to C, while
still positive, are lower compared to 2011. Many find it harder to understand
how their own roles support the corporate strategy. They also seem to feel
less well-recognised for their efforts and are less clear about their career
development prospects.
73%
58%
44%
40%
49%
30%
53%
29%
24%
31%
Outports Ground Staff
The responses are generally positive: most people are proud to be working
for the company and keen to make the business successful. The senior
management in Hong Kong and almost all outport staff appear highly aligned
and engaged.
2,981
632
3,103
153
1,328
4,055
695
1,621
188
CX
The remaining 20 relate to Engagement, a
measure of an employee’s emotional commitment to the company, enthusiasm for their work
and willingness to go the extra mile.
Outports Ground Staff
Outports Ground Staff
Hong Kong Ground Staff
Hong Kong Ground Staff
HKIA CSOs
Cabin Crew
Cabin Crew
Flight Crew
Flight Crew
Proud to be working for the company
Outports Ground Staff
CX
KA
CX
KA
CX
CX
KA
CX
KA
Number % strongly agree
CX
Number of respondents
Out of the 76 core questions, 56 measure
Alignment, defined as the extent to which systems,
processes and an employee’s KRAs are consistent
with the company’s overall aims.
CX
I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the
2014 Alignment and Engagement Survey.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Manila on the move
Smooth
and steady
progress
After months of intensive
preparation, Altéa Customer
Management (CM) was used
for the first time to conduct
check-in, boarding and flight
control for flights departing
Hong Kong.
On 23 September, 10
Dragonair flights successfully
departed to Dhaka, Kathmandu
and Shanghai Pudong using the
new check-in system.
It was a great collective team
effort, particularly from the
Hub Operations, PSS, Dragonair
teams, with the support of
Hong Kong Airport Services
(HAS) and Hong Kong Airport
Authority.
From 16 October, all KA
flights will depart from Hong
Kong using CM as the departure
control system.
General Manager HKIA
Liza Ng highlighted the
importance of the Dragonair
implementation as a learning
experience.
“KA is an integral part of
the overall HKIA operation.
After the latest Dragonair
implementation, the focus for
the team will be moving more
than 100 daily CX departures to
CM,” Liza says.
“Staff experience and
feedback during CM
implementation for KA flights
in Hong Kong will definitely
be useful to ensure a smooth
transition for CX flights in
November.”
More than 40 ports are now
using CM around the network
since it was first introduced in
June.
Staff are quickly adjusting
to the system, with the
implementation having
little impact on day-to-day
operations.
CM will be implemented in
Hong Kong in phases for CX
flights from 13 November.
By 28 November, all Hong
Kong operations will be
managed using the new system.
10
CX operations move to NAIA’s Terminal 3 after 12 years of planning
It was a long time coming, but on 30
September Cathay Pacific’s operations
at Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA) finally moved from Terminal 1 to
Terminal 3.
T3, which is a far more modern terminal than T1, was constructed 10 years
ago, but the major airlines have only
recently moved in, including Delta Air
Lines, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and
KLM.
“The move to T3 has been in the pipeline for many years – 12 in fact. Five different Country Managers have passed
through before it finally took place!” says
current Country Manager Philippines
Alan Lui. “A great deal of effort was required to amend and sometimes rewrite
plans in order to finally secure the permission to move.”
Passenger benefits are immediately
obvious.
There are much-improved food and
beverage offerings at T3 which, along
with more comfortable seating and
more pleasant resting areas, will make
passenger’s stay a more relaxing one.
On a practical level, T3 is situated
directly next to the Skyway – the highspeed motorway linking the airport to
Metro Manila – and passengers will find
their journey time to the city centre cut
by half as a result.
There’s also a new dedicated lounge at
T3 to look forward to next year.
The 650 square-metre space will follow the specifications of the new generation of CX lounges, which means a
main lounge with Solus chairs, an office
area, as well as two food and beverage
offerings.
The move to T3 has also been welcomed by the frontline teams.
As part of the move, the Engineering
and Airport Services teams were relocated to new offices. “The existing offices
in T1 were long overdue for renovation
due to the move being pushed back successively over the years,” says Alan.
He notes that the new facilities are a
huge improvement and offer a far more
pleasant working and relaxation environment for frontline colleagues.
“The Airport office is located within
a two-minute walk from the check-in
desks while the Engineering office is
directly next to one of our designated
boarding gates, so it’s a huge improvement in terms of convenience,” says Alan.
For now, Dragonair will continue to
operate its flights from T1 until it has
clearance to move to T3, along with several other airlines due to move there in
the next batch.
Goodbye, Ed!
The transfer to Terminal 3 coincided with the last official working day
for Ed Monreal, Manila’s beloved Airport Services Manager.
Ed Monreal joined CX on 10 September 1982, having been recruited
by current Director People Nick Rhodes.
Ed’s career in the CX Philippines team was varied, taking him from
the Airport Services team to the Cargo team in Manila before moving
to Cebu 10 years later in 1992 to set up and open CX’s new operations
there.
Following that, he managed the Sales and Services team in
the Southern Philippines before returning to Manila in 1995 and
becoming Airport Services Manager in July 1996.
He was an integral part of the Philippines team; a great source of
knowledge and support to many Country Managers, and a loyal and
hard-working colleague who over the years cemented his reputation
as the “No. 1 typhoon guru in all Southeast Asia”!
Pioneer in airfreight container management
The Cathay Pacific Group is the first
Asia-based airline to appoint an independent vendor for the supply
and management of unit load devices (ULDs), including containers
and cargo pallets.
Under a five-year agreement secured last month with leading provider CHEP Aerospace Solutions,
25,000 ULDs from CX and KA will be
outsourced to the Australia-based
supplier.
In return, CHEP will convert older
containers weighing up to 140kg to
modern, composite containers that
only weigh 56kg. It will also ensure
a sufficient supply of lightweight,
dedicated containers to sustain cargo operations smoothly every day
across the network.
This solution, tailor-made for CX,
was the result of a thorough review.
The lighter container fleet will reduce overall aircraft weight, thereby
improving operational and fuel efficiency, which is in line with the
Group’s commitment to sustainable
development, according to Karen
Wan, Cargo Services Manager –
Standards & Procedure.
Before the agreement, the Group
is operating with a combination of
old and new containers.
The containers, which will have
CX and CHEP co-branding, will ensure that the quality standards are
not compromised, says Karen.
At the same time, CX will also
adopt a ‘pooling’ concept to fulfill
global cargo pallet requirements.
“The cross-utilisation of pallet assets with CHEP’s existing airline customers will provide synergy benefits
to our operations,” Karen says.
The transition of the ULDs will
take place progressively from March
2015.
CHEP will take care of the maintenance and repair of the ULDs, as
well as the daunting task of inventory control through monitoring
cargo and passenger demand as
well as ULD stock levels in each
outport.
Supporting
the wine trade
Heavy presence at Hong Kong wine
competition as hub status grows
Cathay Pacific serves around 1.7 million bottles of wine to passengers ever year, so sponsoring the Hong Kong International Wine &
Spirit Competition seems like a natural fit.
This is CX’s sixth year of being the title sponsor of the event, which involves sponsoring
air tickets for panel judges to come to Hong
Kong.
The Hong Kong wine competition runs in
partnership with the London-based International Wine & Spirit Competition, which has
been running for 45 years.
The Hong Kong event has been created
specifically for the Asian market.
On the judging panel is CX’s Manager Global Contact Centres Simon Kriss, who is currently completing his dissertation to receive a
Masters of Viticulture and Oenology through
the University of Melbourne.
Winners of the competition will be announced on 6 November at the International
Wine and Spirits Fair hosted by the Hong
Kong Trade and Development Council.
“At Cathay Pacific, we put a lot of effort into
selecting the right wines for our flights, reflecting the staggering growth of interest in
wine and spirits in Hong Kong and the Asia
Pacific region,” says Marketing Manager –
Events & Promotions Catherine Chan.
“Hong Kong is fast becoming one of the
world’s most important wine hubs. Our home
city is now a key centre for wine auctions and
trading, tapping into the enormous potential
of the Mainland China market,” she adds.
Visit www.hkiwsc.com to find out more
about the competition.
For more about Simon’s wine journey, stay
tuned for the November issue of CX World.
Obituary – Peter Lui
Colleagues in CX and Cathay
Pacific Services Ltd were
saddened to hear of the
sudden death of Peter Lui, who
passed away at his home in
Sydney on 2 September.
Peter joined CPSL as MHS
Consultant in 2007 and
became Head of Engineering &
IT in May 2010.
He retired from his last
position as Technical Advisor in
March 2014.
He made significant
contributions in managing the
design and implementation of the Materials
Handling System and the
setting up the sophisticated
IT infrastructure at the Cathay
Pacific Cargo Terminal. CPSL Chief Executive
Officer Kelvin Ko said: “As
one of the core members
of the management team,
Peter was crucial in managing
the readiness of the cargo
terminal to go live. He was
regarded as a great working
partner and inspiring leader
and he will be dearly missed
for his kindness, humility, wit
and tremendous contribution.”
11
news focus
India does good
Mumbai’s FunCX team organised a
“tuck shop” event on 14 August to
raise money for their CSR activities.
Staff prepared 21 homemade
items, including fresh juices, snacks,
mini meals and desserts. Some
items were sold out even before the
programme began!
The money raised amounted to
20,180INR, which will be matched
by the company. Thanks to staff’s
enthusiasm and passion, the event
turned out to be a huge success,
motivating FunCX to hopefully
organise another one soon.
And in Hyderabad, the local team
visited Manchikalalu Organisation,
a home for needy children, on 5
August.
The centre offers shelter, food,
education and medical care for
boys until they are able to work.
Apart from sponsoring uniforms
for the children, the CX team also
put together sets of stationery
and supplies – packed in inflight
amenity kits – for everyone. In
return, the kids staged a song-anddance performance.
JAPAN
Dash 8 hits the ground in Japan
MOTIVATED: The CMB team picture at the press conference
announcing the non-stop service to Hong Kong.
12
Hirano Logistics, a long-time ground transportation partner
for the Japan Cargo team, displayed a massive photo of Cathay
Pacific’s Dash 8 freighter on one of its 10-tonne trailers.
The trailer, which was specially designed to hold three
freighter pallets, runs on major roads and highways mainly
between Tokyo and Osaka to provide ground transportation
for CX’s freighter services in the two cities.
CX currently operates a total of 13 weekly freighters to
Japan – five to Kansai and eight to Narita along with 17 weekly
services by Air Hong Kong (five to Nagoya, six to Kansai and six
to Narita).
The photo was snapped when the roving “billboard”
stopped by the Tokyo Town Office on 6 August. In the frame
are Cargo Manager Japan Shuichi Ueba (left) and Hirano
Logistics’ Kenichi Mashiko.
Singapore cares
SINGAPORE
Anticipation is building among the Sri Lankan team
ahead of the launch of direct passenger services from
Colombo to Hong Kong on 27 October.
The four new weekly flights will replace the current
flights stopping over at Singapore. The three tagged
flights stopping over Bangkok will remain unchanged.
“Because of our tagged flights, the majority of our
passengers are destined for Bangkok and Singapore,” says
Anna Choi, Country Manager Sri Lanka & Maldives. “The
non-stop service has huge potential for us, as it offers
better timing to Hong Kong and seamless connections to
Asia, Australia and the USA.”
Anna says Colombo offers a good passenger mix
spanning the leisure and business segments. The team
expects the direct flights to carry more sixth-freedom
traffic with higher yields.
The Colombo route has done consistently well over the
past year. Passenger revenue grew by 31.1% year-on-year
between January and August, which exceeded target by
18.7%.
Now that the flying time to Hong Kong is shortened,
the team expects leisure traffic from Sri Lanka to grow.
“This segment traditionally views Hong Kong as
faraway and expensive, and to change this perception,
we’re working with travel agents and tour operators on
sales blitzes and promotional fares,” Anna says.
Colombo’s cargo business is also enjoying healthy
growth, mainly supported by perishables such as tuna,
grouper, crustaceans, tea and plants.
The city is also a growing market for garment exports
bound for Europe and the States. The garment trade
peaks between February and April, as Sri Lanka produces
lots of summer garments for export.
Being the only Boeing 747F operator in Colombo, CX
can uniquely handle special cargo, such as dangerous
goods, live animals, and very heavy and long pieces.
“Colombo’s emerging economy is growing at the
pace of 7% to 8%, so we’re very positive about our cargo
business here,” Anna says.
INDIA
Momentum
builds for Sri
Lanka team
The Singapore team got up early on two
weekends for worthy causes. On 7 June, 27
staff and family took part in the government’s
Plant-A-Tree Programme by planting nine trees,
which represents the nine daily flights between
Singapore and Hong Kong.
Planting the trees will help maintain
the area’s biodiversity, which ranges from
molecular bacteria to migratory
birds. It also provides simple
shelter, cools the tropical
climate and purifies the
polluted air.
“We’ll definitely be back
to check on our trees next
year,” says Marketing & Sales
Manager Benjamin Khoo. “We
hope our saplings will stand
against the elements!”
A month later, more than 30 staff and family
participated in Habitat for Humanity’s annual
“Bare Your Sole” walkathon for the sixth time.
This charity walk, which requires participants
to walk barefoot, supports less-privileged
communities. Though slightly uncomfortable
at times, employees had a blast bonding while
doing charity work.
“Cathay Pacific has always been a proud
supporter of Bare Your Sole, and this year is no
exception!” says General Manager Southeast
Asia Wilson Yam.
On 27 August, representatives from
the Vietnam team attended the IATA
Aviation Day in Hanoi.
The event was co-hosted by IATA and
Vietnam Airlines and was attended by
senior government ministers, airline
and airline-related executives, and also
external business partners.
Two former CX staff opened and
closed the day’s proceedings: former
CE Tony Tyler gave the opening address
as Director General & CEO for IATA, and
Conrad Clifford, who worked for CX for
six years before leaving and is now IATA
Vice President for Asia Pacific.
Overall, the event showcased the
future development of aviation with
particular focus on the Asia Pacific
region, as that is where the majority of
growth will come from in the next 20
years.
Over and above the predictions about
massive growth in air travel, improved
technologies that will help both airlines
and passengers, and increasingly
open skies, the overarching messages
delivered were as follows:
Firstly, safety is and always will be the
Port people
key priority in aviation, and particularly
now in light of recent events. A renewed
focus must be adopted to ensure air
travel continues to be the safest from of
transport.
Secondly, cooperation – many
speakers highlighted the need for
governments, airports, airlines and
other parties to actively work together
on developing aviation.
Focus was also placed on Vietnam’s
aviation development, which is growing
at breakneck speed but faces significant
challenges.
VIETNAM
Old friends share same goals
DREAM JOB:
Ikleela is
the only
permanent
CX staff
stationed in
the Maldives.
Island girl
Customer Services Officer Ikleela Hameed has the enviable
job of being the only permanent CX staff stationed in the
Maldives.
It’s a job that Ikleela says he’s proud and honoured to
hold.
“I absolutely love my job. I’ve always aspired to be in
aviation,” she says. “Airports are a place where you can
meet people from all around the world. And I love being
able to watch aircraft taking off and landing at such a
close distance.”
Ikleela sees growing up in the Maldives as a mixed
blessing.
“The Maldives is the archetypal island paradise,
although as a nation we face challenges as well,” she says.
“Since we have limited resources here, we have to rely
heavily on foreign aid. In five years we’ve moved from
being a third world country to a developing country, but
there is still a long way to go.”
For the authentic Maldivian experience, Ikleela
recommends visiting during the Eid holidays, Independence Day, or National Day.
“These are the times when the whole country is out
celebrating, and visitors will be able to experience our
indigenous customs and performances,” she says.
Since working at CX, Ikleela has been grateful for the
opportunity to visit Hong Kong. “I find it such an exquisite
city. People are so friendly and helpful – just like my
colleagues at CX!”
Amsterdam caterer
comes on top
AMSTERDAM
ISD Catering presented their annual “Best
Caterer – Hygiene Award 2013” to Gate
Gourmet Amsterdam at a presentation at their
inflight catering facility on 14 August.
The award was presented by CX’s Regional
Catering Manager Europe/ Middle East Antony
Edwards to Gate Gourmet Amsterdan’s Sam
Schneeberger and Srinath Balakrishnan.
Gate Gourmet Amsterdam emerged as the
winner after ISD’s rigorous assessments of
all its 52 caterers. The award is only given to
those attaining the highest level of hygiene
integrity and compliance to service standards.
n
PHILIPPINES
ITALY
Italy rewards 115 accumulated years of service
On 11 September, GM Europe Angus
Barclay visited the Rome office to
welcome new Country Manager Erica
Peng and to give out long-service pins
to (left photo, from left to right) Giusi
Giuliani (25 years), Silvia Tagliaferri (15
years), and Pina Bruno (25 years).
Angus’s visit was followed by
an appearance by Director Sales &
Marketing Dane Cheng, who gave out
two more service pins to (right photo,
from left to right) Valerio Berni (25
years) and Gioia Pieri (25 years).
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Natural linguist
Philippines parties in style
It was a night to remember when the Philippines team held a
“Hail & Farewell” party in honour of former Country Manager
Martin Xu and his successor Alan Lui at the Manila Polo Club.
To spice things up, guests were asked to bring their event
invitation – styled as a boarding pass – for a raffle.
Everyone enjoyed delicious cocktails in a mock “preboarding area” as staff performed a flash mob dance in
uniform.
Martin’s going-away gift was a photo collage featuring the
best memories during his tenure in the country. Alan, on the
other hand, was presented with a barong tagalog, which is
traditionally worn by Filipino men during formal occasions.
The region’s GM, Wilson Yam, who flew in especially for the
event, took the opportunity to announce CX’s Skytrax World’s
Best Airline win.
n
Colombo’s Accounts Assistant Sunali Anjula is an
accomplished linguist – she speaks to many Sri Lankan
locals in Sinhala, her mother tongue; talks to her Indian
friends in flawless Hindi and Tamil; uses English at work;
and is now picking up Korean.
“My mum is half-Indian and many of my family
members speak Hindi. My passion for Hindi started when
I was a small kid,” says Sunali.
She learnt Tamil to chat with her Muslim
friends, and is taking up Korean under the
influence of her sister, who’s also learning
the language from a Korean friend.
Speaking different languages gives
her a competitive edge at work, such
as handling customers who only speak
Tamil.
“I hope my language skills
continue to be relevant as CX is
such an international company,”
says Sunali.
But while she’s constantly
fascinated by foreign languages,
her mother tongue of Sinhala is
still closest to her heart.
“I love Sinhala best because I
feel most comfortable speaking
it,” says Sunali.
“There are many unique and
beautiful words in Sinhala, such
as swabawadharmaya (meaning
environment) and saundaraya
(arts).”
Cooking up a
doggy treat
Assistant Manager Airline Planning Vivian Lee turns into a chef and
nutritionist when she gets home
after work, preparing tasty treats for
three special friends.
“I prepare homemade food for
my dogs, Whiskey, Noodle and Mini,
every day,” says Vivian. “Some years
ago, Whiskey fell sick after eating
dog snacks I bought from a pet
shop. After that I wanted to learn
dog food recipes and cook for them
myself.”
Vivian believes making canine
cuisine at home is the best way to
keep her pets healthy and loyal.
“We can have better control over
what our dogs eat
and make sure their food contains
the essential nutrients they need,”
says Vivian. “Also, it’s a nice reward
for your pets – they will appreciate
how well you treat them!”
Other dogs now have a chance to
sample Vivian’s homemade treats
through her Doglicious enterprise.
“I set up Doglicious on Facebook
so that customers could place orders for my products,” says
Vivian.
Doglicious has featured
green tea apple cookies,
cinnamon tuna biscuits,
vegetable crackers and beetroot flavoured snacks. “I have
made birthday cakes for my
customers’ dogs, too!” Vivian
grins.
The latest Doglicious product was moon cakes for dogs in
celebration of the Mid-Autumn
Festival.
For those who want to make
dog food themselves, Vivian advises you get to understand your
dog’s preferences and check for
any allergies to specific ingredients.
“Let your dog try a small portion
at first and see how it reacts to the
food – sometimes it takes quite a
while for them to accept new flavours or food combinations,” Vivian
explains.
Caption xx xxx xx xx xxxx xxx
xxxxx xx xxx xx xx xxxx xxx xxxxx
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WOOF JUSTICE: Vivian, pictured with boyfriend Kenny, gives one of their
homemade treats – a special birthday cake – to their dog, Whiskey.
Nick Deal
General Manager People Development
1. You’ve been at
CX since 2011. What do you like
most about it?
Hong Kong has been my home since
1992, so I’m a long-term CX fan. I
enjoy the diversity of the team and
the friendly cooperative vibe. Also
that people are so proud of the airline
and want it to succeed. I see Cathay
like my beloved Liverpool FC – a class
act but also an underdog up against
some ridiculously funded competitors. Yet we are still rated as the best
by the people that count – I love that!
2. What’s the main focus of the
People Development team?
I’m lucky to have a highly talented
and dedicated team that is focused
on leadership, team and communication development courses – ones that
can apply to any function in CX. We’ve
made progress and the next step is to
deliver more courses for team leaders
at more junior levels. The overall goal
is to help the leadership build a high
performance culture. For me, that
means people like their work and
they like the people they work with –
even their boss!
3. What’s the point of leadership
courses? Can’t people just learn
from the internet?
You can read it on the internet – but
that doesn’t mean you can do it! It’s
all about who is there with you in the
group, who delivers the inspiration
from the front of the room, and the
opportunity to “learn by doing” .
4. What’s your leadership philosophy and how does it relate to
the courses?
It’s a marathon, not a sprint, to
learn how to be a consistently-liked,
respected and
effective leader.
I want people
to leave our
courses feeling
re-energised and inspired. Anything less isn’t
good enough.
5. What’s the best part of your job?
Happy customers - the ones who
leave asking for more! Also designing
and delivering programmes with my
team – I’ve been doing that for 20
years and I still find it endlessly challenging, exciting and rewarding.
6. What career achievement are
you proudest of?
Even though I don’t use it now, as a
History graduate I was proud to qualify as a chartered accountant back in
1990. Being admitted as an equity
partner at Ernst & Young in 2006 was
another big milestone, especially as I
was a “people partner” and no longer
bringing in revenue.
(a juggling clown – really!). Being a
clothes shop assistant was the worst
– so boring!
8. You’re a keen sportsman –
what are your sporting highlights?
It has to be my hole in one at golf
when I was playing with my Dad two
summers ago. He was the one to find
my “lost” ball in the hole!
9. What are your favourite holiday
spots?
The Greek Islands are very special,
and Paros and Santorini are my favourites. Please do contact me for tips – I
will ask my Greek Mum!
7. What’s the worst job you’ve
ever done?
10. What else helps keep Nick
Deal happy?
My first paid job was a DJ, so it’s been
downhill since then! I’ve been a hotel
bell-boy, waiter, bank cashier, auditor,
accountancy lecturer, management
consultant, children’s entertainer
Simple things: hanging out with
my wife and kids, scoring goals and
making putts, sunshine, spicy food,
parties and of course travelling – the
odd upgrade always helps!
PEOPLE POWER: Nick Deal (second from right) with his People Development Managers –
from left, Ronney Ngan, Christina Reis and Jesse Lui.
Nick Rhodes presents
DIFFERENT STROKES:
to
Golf Tournament cup
the Inter-Department
neth.
Ken
and
vid
Da
d,
har
ENG heroes Craig, Ric
Congratulations to the CX Tai Chi Team, which comprises:
Angie Ng (FIN), Cherry Leung (WRT), Chetan Shetty (IMT), Christina
Li (AHQ), Christine Chan (ENG), Cynthia Yung (WRT), Calvin Leung,
Helen Chih (ISD), Hwa Soo Yoo (ISD), Ivy Lee (PNL), Josephine
Wong (ISD), Makiko Fujita (ISD), May Ng (IMT), Patricia Yu (ENG),
Regina Lam, Sandy Yan, Shera Cheng (ISD), Tara Tjhang (ISD),
Hoffman Tik (FOP), Tammy Lau (WRT) and Margaret Ng.
On top of the world
The CX Tai Chi team had an impressive run at the 9th International
Wushu Competition held in Hong Kong in August.
Taking part were more than 1,200 wushu athletes from Hong
Kong and around the world, including China, Croatia, France, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and Macau.
The skilled CX team swept several grand trophies at the event, including Best Team, Best Coach (Master CC Kwan), Best Athlete (FIN’s
Angie Ng) and Individual All-Round 2nd Runner-up (ISD’s Josephine
Wong).
Staff also won 48 gold, 11 silver and 4 bronze medals in individual
events under the leadership of FIN’s Angie Ng; as well as the gold
medal at the sword team event under the leadership of ISD’s Josephine Wong.
“Our preparation started months prior to the competition and
our team members were fully committed,” says team leader Angie
Ng. “On top of our regular practice after work, additional sessions
were arranged for crew and roster staff during lunch hours and
weekends under the tutelage of our cifu, Master CC Kwan.”
To sustain the team’s professional image among the tai chi community, the team hopes to continue recruiting new blood, training
existing members and preparing core athletes for world-renowned
competitions.
“We’re honoured to have ISD’s Tricia Seng and Josephine Wong
representing Hong Kong to participate in the first World Taijiquan
Championships, which will be held in Chengdu in November this
year,” says Angie.
VETERAN RETIRES:
The Taiwan team
held a retirement
farewell party for
Marketing Manager William Ling,
with GM Patrick
Yeung thanking
him for 36 years of
service.
MOVIE MAGIC: The FunCX team in Kolkata
gathered staff and family for a showing of
Guardians of the Galaxy on Independence Day.
in Malaysia bade
HELLO, GOODBYE: The team
ager Melody Keung
Man
ntry
Cou
farewell to former
the job.
and welcomed Mar y Chan into
day
ONEWORLD FUNDAY: The “one
show
road
d”
oneteam oneworl
to
landed at Narita Airport in July
promote the alliance.
PATRIOTISM ON DISPLAY: The Delhi airpor t team
decorated their counters – and their wrists
– with
the Indian flag on Independence Day.
SPREAD THE WORD: CX made its presence felt at the Global Business Travel
Association (GBTA) tradeshow in Los
Angeles.
INDEPENDENCE DAY: The Delhi team celebrated Independence Day by
hosting a fun-filled barbeque lunch.
COMINGS AND GOINGS: The UAE
team bade farewell to Brian Yuen
in style and welcomed Ashish
Kapur into the role.
STILL STRONG: The Los Angeles team
recently celebrated the route’s 24th
year of operation.
15
Mad dash
through
Madagascar
Travel
bites
n Dawn of the dead
The Day of the Dead, or Día
de los Muertos, is celebrated in
Mexico between 31 October and
2 November. Often confused with
Halloween due to the proximity in time, this
holiday is not about
frights, but instead
welcomes the souls of
the dead back home as
a blessing.
This festival, which
also takes place in
the US and other
countries with large
Mexican populations, is celebrated most
authentically in Oaxaca.
Take part in altar and cemetery tours, and
at night, bask in the candlelight processions
and vigils in town, accompanied by the
tunes of roving Mariachi bands.
n Winter wonderland
At the twomonth Harbin
International
Ice and Snow
Sculpture
Festival,
the region’s
landscape is
transformed
by works of art and architecture made with
ice from the Songhua River.
Expect to be dazzled by the thousands of
pieces sprread between four primary parks
and amusement zones.
This year’s festival takes place in
Heilongjiang in China between 5 January
and 28 February.
Visit www.icefestivalharbin.com for more.
Head of Compliance Fiona So recounts a
gruelling but unforgettable endurance race
A year ago, Jennifer Wong She and I, the two
in-house lawyers at CX, decided to take on a
250km challenge in Madagascar.
The race is one of the toughest foot races
in the world and is organised by Racing the
Planet.
Competitors are required to carry all their
own equipment and food, and are only provided with drinking water and a place in a tent
each night to rest.
These ultra-distance races were named by
Time magazine in 2010 as one of the world’s
top 10 endurance competitions.
Our race started in Antsiranana in northern
Madagascar and ended in Ambilobe.
Every day, we lugged our 9kg backpack in
extremely hot weather, running and walking
for up to eight hours across different terrains,
crossing rivers, climbing fences, crossing paddy fields from one checkpoint to the other.
On the fifth day, which was known as the
“Long March’”, we completed a 77km stage
that took just under 15 hours to finish.
At the end of each long day, we would stick
our feet up so that we could feel them and ensure they were still there! To add to the toughness, there were no showers or any cleaning
facilities, so we had to put up with smelly clothing (and tent mates) for seven days.
To save weight, meals comprised either
freeze-dried meals or instant noodles – you
could say that the camp did not help much
with recovery.
However, it is amazing how one’s body can
adapt to harsh environments.
At the start of each new day, our bodies
would feel good to go again for another eight
hours.
Every step became more and more painful
each day, but the pain also made us stronger.
It was a great feeling, magnified by the
stunning scenery and supportive locals who
cheered for us every time we passed by their
villages.
The locals lived a very simple life devoid of
electricity and fresh water supplies, but everyone had smiles on their faces.
Experiencing not having clean running water for seven days – towards the end I actually
looked forward to river crossings – reminded
me how fortunate I am to have a bed to sleep in,
unlimited running water to use, clean clothes
and an abundant food supply back at home.
Madagascar is definitely a place worth visit-
n InterContinental Bali offer
ing: a unique landscape encompassing lush
rainforests, sheer rock cliffs, rolling deserts
and savannas, hugged by a pristine, turquoise
shoreline.
To get there, we flew from Hong Kong to
Johannesburg, then from Antananarivo to Antsiranana.
Experience Intercontinental Bali’s hospitality
in a tropical landscaped resort with access
to 500 metres of pristine beach at Jimbaran
Bay. Special industry rates start at US$100
for a Resort Classic Room and go up to
US$325 for a Club Duplex.
Benefits include 50% discount on
breakfast and club level access.
Visit www.bali.intercontinental.com to
find out more about the hotel, and the “Staff
Offers” page on IntraCX for details about the
staff discount.
SHOW US YOUR TIPS!
CX World welcomes staff travel tips from
across the network – email us at CCD#SCT
Snap happy
Flight Attendant Alex Budiman took this photo at La Sagrada Familia
in Barcelona, Spain.
The massive Roman Catholic church was designed by famous
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who left only less than a quarter of the
building completed up till his death at 73 in 1926.
“If you only have limited time for your stay in Barcelona, then make
this uncompleted landmark the top of your itinerary,” says Alex. “Not
only is it the best interpretation of Gaudi’s brilliant vision and an
architectural challenge to construct, it is impossible to find another
church like this anywhere in the world.”
Its anticipated completion date is 2026, the centenary of Gaudi’s
death.
“Be sure to visit the church when the glorious sun rays burst
through the colorful stained-glass,” Alex adds. “Most importantly,
remember to book the entry tickets online to avoid the extremely long
queues. Standing under the glaring sun for a few hours is no fun at all!”
Visit Alex’s travel blog at travelwithoutborders.wordpress.com.
16
HK$500 for a travel tale!
Every month, CX World invites all CX staff to
tell unusual, interesting or just downright
quirky tales of travel moments around the
world. The stories may also be featured
on official CX social media channels, such
as Facebook. Sponsored by Inflight Sales,
the lucky sender of the main story receives
HK$500 worth of inflight
sales products of their
choice from the everchanging collection
of over 260 items on
offer (excluding liquor
and cigarettes).
Go shopping at
www.cathaypacific.
com/dutyfree