2

Agreeent inked for A350-1000s, order book at almost 100 aircraftAirbus and Cathay Pacific used the Farnborough International Air-show in the UK as a platform to announce another significant air-craft order for the airline.

Chairman Chris Pratt and Chief Executive John Slosar joined with Airbus executives on 9 July to confirm that CX would enter into an agreement for the purchase of 10 Airbus A350-1000s, powered by the higher-thrust version of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine.

At the same time, 16 of the A350-900s already on order will be converted to the -1000 variant, which offers a bigger payload and longer range than its -900 cousin.

The agreement for the new pur-

Retrofit programme on track with new cabins for A330 fleet The retrofit programme for the A330s is progressing well with the first aircraft, B-LAC, completed on 12 July and a further 13 sched-uled to be completed by early next year.

Manager Cabin Engineering Diamond Ho says: “This is the first A330 to be retrofitted with the new cabin product in all classes.

“We needed to remove the en-

chase is still subject to ratification by the CX Board, which meets on 8 August.

With this latest announcement the CX Group now almost 100 air-craft new aircraft on order.

”The A350-1000 will be a good fit for Cathay Pacific’s future needs,” John said.

The airline has 22 A350-900s and 26 Airbus A350-1000s on order for delivery between 2016 and 2020.

“These aircraft orders demon-strate Cathay Pacific’s confidence in the Hong Kong hub and also, with these newer, more efficient aircraft, our commitment to sus-tainability,” John said.

The modernisation of the fleet is

n Another award for CXCathay Pacific was a winner once again in the Next Magazine 2012 Top Service Awards, taking the top honour in the Airlines category for the 16th consecu-tive year.

General Manager HKIA Paul Loo represented CX at the pres-entation ceremony on 27 June, accepting the award from Felix Bieger, Chairman of the Hong Kong Hotels Associations.

n New records set for home hubThe Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) announced that Hong Kong International Airport set new records for both revenue and profit in the financial year ended 31 March.

Profit rose to HK$5,336 mil-lion, up 32.2% on the previous year, while revenue was up 14.8% at HK$12,154 million.

Passenger volume increased 6.6% to 54.9 million and flight movements rose 7.2% to 339,000.

The cargo performance sof-tened 5.9% to 3.9 million tonnes.

HKIA remained the world’s busiest international cargo airport, a position it has held since 1996. It has also been ranked the third-busiest airport for international air passengers since 2009.

n Ooh baby!ISD is organising its first-ever baby crawling contest on 28 September.

Open to all crew parents, the contest will take place in Dako-tas Sports Hall and is open to babies aged 6 to 18 months.

Produced by CX’s Corporate Communication Department

7/F North Tower, Cathay Pacific City, Lantau, HK

Publisher: C K YeungManaging Editor: Mark Tindall

Editor: Joyce WongEnquiries: 2747-5293

GalaCXy ID: CCD#SCT Email: ccd#sct@cathaypacific.com

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tire section of old Economy seats as well as the old Business Class seats and install the new long-haul Business Class, the new Premium Economy Class (PEY) and new Economy Class products,” he adds.

One challenge for the A330 is the unconventional seat tracks which need to be removed.

“When the aircraft was installed

More aircraft on the way

WORK IN PROGRESS: B-LAC had its interior emptied and the floor structure modi-fied for the new cabin products.

also continuing apace. As CX gets ready to retire three

of its older Boeing 747-400 pas-senger aircraft, new arrivals are coming in all the time.

An A330-300 – the 34th in the

fleet - arrived from Toulouse in June; the sixth Boeing 747-8F ar-rived from Seattle on 13 July, with the seventh coming in August; and another new Boeing 777-300ER also arrives that month.

with the old Business Class prod-uct – commonly known as her-ringbone configuration – the seats were installed on angled seat tracks,” Diamond says.

“We had to remove these seat tracks and replace them with nor-mal seat tracks which, from an Engineering perspective, needed a lot of attention and precision,” he adds. The new cabin retrofit start-

ed on the B777ERs with the last one being completed in August. By first quarter 2013 every long-haul aircraft will have the new Business Class installed.

“From the end of 2012, the 777 fleet will undergo retrofitting for the PEY cabin and the new Economy Class seats,” Diamond says.

The A340 PEY retrofit will take place in mid-2013.

3

Customers, staff help airline to lift Skytrax honourThe new Business Class cabin received the ultimate plaudit on 12 July when CX was named the World’s Best Business Class in the World Airline Awards run by Skytrax.

More than 18 million airline passengers from around the world participated in the survey, and Chief Executive John Slosar stressed that customers know best.

“In designing the Business Class product we talked to our customers, listened to their feedback, and then incorporated those features they told us would provide them with the optimal balance of productivity, comfort, and privacy,” John said.

“This is a seating environment truly designed by the people who use it, and I am delighted to hear from our customers that we are delivering industry-beating products and services.”

Recognising that the Business Class experience is about the service as well as the hard product, John praised the contribution of frontline staff, saying that “we have the industry’s best people serving our customers”.

Praise also came for the team that worked on the product, which went into service in March 2011 and now features on 30 777-300ER and A330-300 aircraft.

At a management briefing on 13 July, Chief

TEAM EFFORT: Ivan Chu and some of the staff who worked on the new Business Class give a big thumbs up (top), ads went into local papers to highlight the award (above).

Produced by CX’s Corporate Communication Department

7/F North Tower, Cathay Pacific City, Lantau, HK

Publisher: C K YeungManaging Editor: Mark Tindall

Editor: Joyce WongEnquiries: 2747-5293

GalaCXy ID: CCD#SCT Email: ccd#sct@cathaypacific.com

July is turning out to be an important month for our airline, with a major in-dustry award in the bag and yet another new aircraft order placed. And there signs that our business – at least on the passenger side – is beginning what will probably be a slow climb out of the doldrums, helped by the recent dip in fuel prices. Let’s hope the momentum continues!

I hope everyone on the Cathay team feels a great sense of pride that we received the World’s Best Business Class honour in the latest Skytrax World Airline Awards. More than 18 million airline passengers worldwide voted this time, and ultimately no one knows better than customers when it comes to evaluating our products. An important element of developing our new Business Class product was getting our customers involved. This was a genuine collaboration where we talked to customers and listened to their feedback about the features they would like to see.

From the CX side, it was a real team effort to come up with this ground-breaking product. The development and introduction of the new seat and cabin was a superb cross-department effort and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone involved. But we all know that winning this award is not just about the hard product – it’s also about the fantastic service provided by our teams in the air and on the ground. We are fortunate to have the industry’s best people making sure that every flight is a special experience for our passengers.

We have been taking great strides on the product side, with our new Business Class, Premium Economy and long-haul Economy seats already in place and some more exciting developments in the pipeline. Great products are nothing without great aircraft in which to fit them, and we continue to put lot of effort into building one of the youngest and most efficient fleets.

The recently announced order for 10 additional Airbus A350-1000, and the conversion of 16 of the A350-900s al-ready on order into the -1000 variant, is another important step in the long-term upgrading of our fleet. The -1000 offers a bigger payload and longer range than the -900 and the aircraft will play a key role in helping us to develop our me-dium- and long-haul network to provide even greater connectivity through our home hub.

John Slosar

Video offers sneak peek of new Premium Economy productA virtual tour of Cathay Pacific’s Premium Economy Class product is now available on the airline’s YouTube channel.

Hosted by General Manager Product Alex McGowan, the video takes viewers through the exclusive features of the PEY experience on the ground and throughout the flight. Alex also highlights the comfortable seat, enhanced catering and better entertainment options.

Some of the feedback received from viewers includes comments on the spaciousness of the seat and how it helped ensure a good rest during the flight.

“The legroom for the first row is incredible,” one viewer said.

Operating Officer Ivan Chu said a special thanks to all the teams involved in developing and introducing the new cabin, with representatives from Product, Engineering, Airline Purchasing, Inflight Services, Airline Planning and Catering present.

“This was a fantastic cross-departmental effort,” Ivan said. “Teamwork is something we do well at Cathay Pacific – it really helps to give us a competitive advantage.”

Later the same day, Ivan gave a briefing for the local media, held in the mock-up of the new Business Class cabin at Cathay City.

The airline placed advertisements in local newspapers, emphasising that “we couldn’t have done it without you”.

John added that it was an honour for Cathay Pacific “to stand on the global aviation stage and show the world what can be achieved in Hong Kong.”

4

New app for inflight magazine will offer richer interactive content Inflight magazine Discovery will be available in a wide range of digital formats, including an iPad app, from August, providing readers with more interactive content and helping es-tablish the magazine as a destina-tion lifestyle publication.

Product Manager, Communica-tion & Entertainment Content Gloria Chow-Vanderwell says: “We appre-ciate that more and more passen-gers are using tablet devices and like to be able to read Discovery off the aircraft. The app helps us extend the CX journey to the ground.”

The app version is much more interactive with slideshows, anima-tion, videos and a 3D product show-case which is popular for ad sales, Gloria explains.

“Readers can switch languages and we’ve added a ‘book now’ button next to destination features which links back to cathaypacific.

The spare change that makes a differenceThe coins donated by Cathay Pacific passengers to the UNICEF Change for Good fundraising programme came to more than HK$12.9 million in 2011.

During a cheque presentation ceremony held at Cathay City on 29 June, Chief Executive John Slosar thanked CX passengers – and staff – for their contin-ued generosity over the 21 years the programme has been running.

“We are very happy to continue this long association because we know that every dollar donated to Change for Good will be put to very good use,” he said.

The donations will be used to support UNICEF’s projects worldwide including a maternal and child healthcare programme in Laos, which was visited ear-lier this year by a group of CX staff.

The ceremony was also attended by Chairman of UNICEF HK Judy Chen (pictured second left with John) and CX Volunteers.

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com so passengers can use it to plan journeys,” she says.

“Ultimately we would like to posi-tion Discovery as much more than an inflight magazine. It’s a lifestyle publication and the first port of call for the best advice about travel globally and especially in Hong Kong,” Gloria adds.

While the print run for Discov-ery will remain the same for the moment, the plan is to eventu-ally cut back.

The team also plans to re-place the magazine wrappers with a biodegradable bag later this year. The bag has been specially treated to make it dis-integrate and degrade naturally in sunlight or water.

“Discover the Shop and Em-porium magazines will also use lighter paper, which will equate to about a 10% reduction in

In the late 1980s, Cathay Pacific was fast cementing its position as a premium carrier, building its fleet of Boeing 747-200/300s and adding more Super TriStars all the time.

New destinations were being added each year, including pioneering non-stop long-haul services to places such as Vancouver, London, Frankfurt and Rome.

In the cabin, the emphasis was very much the same as it is now – on attention to detail and providing a superior level of service in every class of travel.

The picture here comes from a CX guide to products and services and features cabin crew conducting the First Class trolley service, where “glassware, chi-naware, silverware and silver service provide an elegant setting”.

Some things were a little different back then. The attire of the business travel-lers was a tad more formal and the colour scheme in the cabin was defintiely not as subtle as it is today.

First Class service always guaranteed

n Fuel surcharge dropsThe Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department gave approval for reduced passenger surcharges in July, reflecting the recent fall in fuel prices.

The surcharge for short-haul services is down 6.3% on the previous month to HK$237. The long-haul surcharge dropped by 10.4% to HK$1,043.

n Mobile Boarding Pass extendedThe CX Mobile Boarding Pass service is becoming available in more destinations, being made available for passengers depart-ing Vancouver from 2 July.

The service will launch for flights out of Taipei on 1 August.

Mobile Boarding Pass – which enables eligible passengers to check in online and receive their boarding pass via SMS or email – is also available out of Hong Kong and Auckland.

n AEDs at Cathay CityFollowing a recommendation from the Occupational Health & Safety Action Group, four automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have been installed at Cathay City.

Having the devices located at the workplace improves the likelihood of people surviving a cardiac crisis.

One AED is located at the main reception, another in the Flight Training Centre recep-tion, one by the North Annex of the loading bay and one at the Dakota Club entrance.

The devices are fully auto-mated. Lay people who have never been trained can save lives by simply following the voice instructions (in English).

n New IMT department siteA revamped Information Man-agement and Technology (IMT) department site on IntraCX provides staff with a one-stop location to find information on IT services and support, along with user guides to help with staff’s everyday technology needs.

weight for every magazine,” Gloria explains.

Gloria says that reducing the print run for those publications is also in the long-term plan but, for the mo-ment, reducing wastage is

the first important step. “Passenger research showed

they like having the bag as it gives the impression that the magazines are still new,” she says.

But as only crisp magazines can be packed into the

bags. “We have

been talk-ing to CPCS

about being more gentle with the maga-zines when they

come off the air-craft so they can be reused and repacked,” Gloria adds.

ON TOUCH: The new Discovery app will help extend the CX journey to the ground.

5

A delicate touch was required on the night of 12 July when the enormous crates required to hold the full service Boeing 747-8F simulator were eased into the third floor of the Flight Training Centre at Cathay City.

The giant cranes required for the job meant that special permission was needed to block off the roadway outside the building.

CX is the first Asian carrier to install the Dash 8 simulator which is scheduled to be ready for training on 20 September. Find out more about the installation process in the August CX World.

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Cathay Pacific’s latest freighter delivery – its sixth Boeing 747-8F – left Seattle on 13 July, but took a bit longer than usual to arrive home.

Rather than taking the direct route from Everett airfield to Hong Kong, B-LJH head-ed up to Vancouver to pick up more than 70 tonnes of cherries bound for supermarkets in the Far East.

This was the first time a freighter delivery had been used to operate a revenue flight, and it was made possible through coopera-tion between the CX Engineering Aircraft Induction team and the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department.

“The normal process involves the CAD

delegating the aircraft inspection to one of the Aircraft Induction team members,” says Mark Harries, Aircraft Induction & Pro-gramme Management Manager.

“This results in a seven-day Certificate of Airworthiness (CoA) where the aircraft must fly directly to Hong Kong. The pre-service work will then be done here before the full 12-month CoA is issued.”

In the coming months, a new process – HKAR-183 – will be introduced where CX hopes to gain approval to issue a 12-month CoA directly at the point of delivery.

“This working cooperation should help to gain the confidence of the HKCAD to achieve the approval,” says Mark.

Easy does it

Some extra work was needed on the ground in Seattle to get the aircraft ready to carry its first load, but other than that it was a routine delivery for Mark and Line Main-tenance Managers Giancarlo Tedaldi and Enrico Mosbach.

“We approach every delivery in the same way but there is always something different with every aircraft,” says Mark.

“The Dash 8 is still a relatively new type so updates are still being done by Boeing.”

Back in Hong Kong, the Cargo team is looking forward to getting the new arrival in the air.

“These new aircraft have already proved themselves, particularly on transpacific routes where the operating economics are a big improvement over older freighters,” says General Manager Cargo Planning Rossana Lau.

The current weak cargo market means that the Dash 8’s payload capabilities haven’t yet been tested to the full, though B-LJA did break the Cathay Pacific uplift record on 10 January, carrying perishables out of Melbourne.

Making the most of every part

Dash 8 models up for grabs!To mark the arrival of Cathay Pacific’s lat-est Boeing 747-8F, CX World has a bag of goodies to give away as a lucky draw prize, including Boeing posters and mugs and Dash 8 freighter models.

To enter, send an email with the subject line “Dash 8” to CCD#SCT by noon on Friday, 10 August.

A team of engineers from Los Angeles and mechanics from Taipei were on the spot in Victorville on 29 May when B-HOZ, a Boeing 747-400BCF, was stripped down for spare parts before being broken up.

“We had no time to waste,” says LAX Engineering Manager Carl Buack.

“Major components like the engines, auxiliary power unit and various avionic and aircraft system components had to be removed as soon as possible to support the fleet,” he adds.

The importance of keeping parts, and especially en-gines, was brought home when one was needed al-most straight away after B-HOZ’s had been removed. It went onto B-HUA when it experienced an engine failure soon after takeoff out of San Francisco.

The Taipei team of Charles Chu, Frank Kao, Allen Chien, Jones Chung, Joseph Lin and Joseph Chao, along with the engine equipment, were dispatched immediately to San Francisco where Engineering Manager Jim Aspro and his team helped with the engine change.

Back in Victorville, more than 90 additional com-ponents were removed before the aircraft was bro-ken up.

PASSED THE TEST: Enricho Mosbach (ENG), David Lohse (FOP), Giencarlo Tendalli (ENG) and Steve Smith (FOP) after the successful customer acceptance flight for B-LJH.

“I flew with my family on CX720 from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.

Due to a check-in error, I was allocated a seat with my wife and six-month-old baby, while my two-year-old daughter was given a seat on her own far away from us.

We noticed the problem at the gate but, due to the late notifica-tion, the ground staff were unable to make any seat changes.

Once on board, Senior Purser Agnes Yong moved several passen-gers around in order to allow my whole family to sit together.

The rest of the cabin staff were extremely helpful as well, and made a huge fuss over my little girl. Throughout the flight, they did their jobs with great enthusiasm and did a great job looking after everyone.”

Senior Purser Agnes Yong won praise for helping a family travelling from Kuala Lumpur.

The patience and pro-fessionalism shown by HKIA’s Cat Cheung helped calm a passenger down. “I was very upset when I checked-in at Hong Kong International Airport after my original flight had been cancelled and I received incorrect information regarding my connect-ing flight.

I then met Customer Services Officer Cat Cheung who was very patient and calm and, most impor-tantly, listened to everything I had to say.

While she managed to get another flight for me, I was assigned a bad seat when I had originally been as-signed an exit row seat, which I was also unhappy about.

However the fact that Cat listened to my concerns in a patient manner was enough to improve my mood.

At the gate, I was delighted to find out that I had been upgraded to a Business Class seat which really exceeded my expectations.

I would like to thank Cat for being patient and listening to me – people like her are why I continue to fly with Cathay Pacific.”

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can pick up the stories and re-print them to a wider audience, I would certainly be more careful about what I would share.

Are staff aware that their story can end up being publicised to the wider Hong Kong public?

Name withheld

Mark Tindall, Communication Services Manager, CCD, re-plies: CX World is a billed as a “magazine for staff and friends of Cathay Pacific”.

While its main purpose will always be to communicate be-tween the company and staff,

there are a lot of people outside Cathay Pacific who have a big interest in what’s happening in the airline.

We currently share the magazine with interested parties such as the media, analysts, academics, gov-

ernment officials and others within the industry.

To date we have never had complaints from those who have been featured in CX World.

However, we do take on board your comments about the fact that some staff may feel uncomfortable about their stories being shared with the wider world. We will endeavour to inform them of the situation beforehand.

Direct login to travel Unlike most other airlines, CX does not provide us with a direct login to the myIDTravel website.

When we are booking tickets on a mobile device with limited

Staff stories go public A local Hong Kong newspa-per reprinted an article which had previously appeared in CX World and Dragonews about a pilot couple who work at Drago-nair.

If I had something to share with staff I would be happy to have the story appear in the internal staff newspaper, but knowing that local newspapers

Internet connection it is a much lengthier process to go via iCon-nect and iJourney to finally arrive on the myIDTravel website, which could have been pulled up direct-ly.

Why can’t we get a direct link and login? This would also offload some traffic from IntraCX which can be fairly slow at times.

Name withheld

Bob Nipperess, Employee Servic-es Manager, replies: Our interline partners have different configura-tions and that is why some permit direct access. But others, includ-ing Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, do not.

The reason we do not provide a direct link to myIDTravel is be-cause all staff and dependent eligi-bility data resides in the iflySTAFF system and is only transferred at the time of log-in from that system. Therefore, users must follow that pathway to access myIDTravel.

This means access to myIDTrav-el can only be achieved through either IntraCX or iConnect.

We continue to work with vari-ous IMT teams to improve system stability and access. We hope that in time we can move some of the iJourney access to alternative platforms.

Revive leave scheme?As it looks as if we will be facing another economic recession this year, will another Special Leave Scheme (SLS) be implemented for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair staff?

I think most staff would be willing to help the company get through this critical time and help out the financial situation.

I think we all appreciate that last time staff participated in SLS, the salary was refunded when the company was strong again.

This is a chance to face this hard time together.

Name withheld

Wendy Kwan, Head, Personnel Management, Hong Kong Ground Staff, replies: I agree with you that our staff will come together when the company faces challenges.

Back in 2003 when we faced a difficult time during SARS and in 2009 when the global financial tur-moil severely hit our business, staff stood together with the company to sail through those challenges. We have confidence the team spirit has not changed.

However, at this stage, the com-pany has already initiated mea-sures to lower our operational costs and we don’t have any plans to introduce the Special Leave Scheme to our staff.

Star letter

required exterior wash and wax programme. This has led Engineering to develop and con-

tract these requirements to a number of line sta-tions, and at the same time work with HAECO to build up resources and new equipment to meet the programme needs.

While we are seeing improvements to exterior cleanliness across the fleets, we anticipate full re-covery and maintenance of our aircraft exteriors by September of this year.

With respect to the interior cleanliness of our aircraft, it is disappointing to note that the impact of the quick turnaround due to the late arrival of the aircraft did not meet our cleaning and dressing standards.

Over the past 18 months, we have introduced new processes for transit cleaning for all stations.

Every flight is assessed and scored as accept-able, or not, by the ISMs and the results are moni-tored and reviewed on a monthly basis.

Where shortfalls exist, processes, procedures and training (or, as a last resort, new contracts) will be put in place to correct these shortfalls.

Observed performance is generally improving and our target has just moved up to 98%, with many of our stations now meeting or exceeding targets.

Our intention is to deliver and maintain the air-line’s standards, for all aircraft and every station.

I was a passenger on CX108 (Auckland-Hong Kong) and wanted to share my experience.

The incoming aircraft had been delayed from Hong Kong and during the wait I watched three brand-new Boeing 777s from competitor airlines rolling up to the terminal.

The CX aircraft then arrived in the worst condi-tion I’ve ever seen an airline present an aircraft. It was covered in dirt to the point that I overheard passengers in the lounge commenting on the state of it. The quick turnaround left the inside a fair mess as well.

May I ask why we don’t keep up the standards even out of smaller markets like Auckland?

Name withheld

Richard Anderson, Cabin Quality and Stan-dards Manager, replies: The cleanliness and presentation of both the interior and exterior of our aircraft is considered a core requirement by the airline.

We are aware that conditions had deteriorated over a number of years and Engineering formed a Cabin Quality and Standards team in 2011 dedi-cated to manage the standards and our supply chain.

It was concluded at the end of last year that our Hong Kong service provider was unable to supply the required resources to meet the needs of the

Service withheart

Cleaning up our act

7

Dragonair’s uniform project is progressing smoothly. There was an overwhelming response from staff when the call went out for volunteers for the new uniform wearer trial which will run from 7 August to 10 September.

“Staff feedback is a vital ele-ment and this test run will ensure that the new uniform works for our staff,” says Head KA Uniform Project Jenny Ho (above).

Participating staff wear the new uniform while on duty and provide the implementation team with feedback through a survey.

“As the trial has to include a diverse group of uniform wear-ers, we selected participants to ensure that there were represen-tatives from various staff catego-ries, departments and uniform profiles,” says Jenny.

“In all, 200 staff will take part in the trial – half are cabin crew and the other half are ground staff from both Hong Kong and outports,” she adds.

The comments received from the wearers will be passed on to the designer and technical con-sultant for final tweaking before the official introduction.

The trial comes after the second presentation of the new uniform in April conducted by de-signer Eddie Lau, in front of KA Chairman John Slosar, Director & Chairman of the Executive Com-mittee Ivan Chu, CEO Patrick Yeung and other managers.

On 13 July, the new uniform project team and the KA cabin crew recruitment team moved into a new office in the CNAC Building directly opposite Drago-nair House.

The premises provide space for a new uniform fitting area and storage as well as rooms for cabin crew recruitment interviews and written tests.

Family ties reinforced with launch of Taichung serviceA visit to Taichung for Cathay Pacific Services Ltd CEO Alger-non Yau is like a trip through his family history, so the launch of direct services by Dragonair on 28 May was a special moment for him.

His grandfather, Chiu Feng Chia, is very well known in the Taiwanese city with a univer-sity, a park and even a market named after him.

Feng Chia was a patriot, poet and educator and is respected as a national hero who fought for the unity of the island.

“He was one of the leaders of the military resistance against the Japanese invasion of Tai-wan in 1895,” Algernon says.

NEW IN TOWN: Patrick Yeung (centre) and the operating crew mark the launch of the Chiang Mai service.

“Later he was actively involved in the Xinhai Revolution that over-threw the Qing Dynasty in China.”

Algernon says his grandfather has had a profound influence on him, though they never met.

“He died at the age of 49 so I never saw him, but I have read a lot of books about him. His ideas on the concept of country have af-fected me deeply,” he says.

Walking though Taichung, there are many landmarks named af-ter his famous ancestor. These include the Feng Chia University founded in central Taiwan in the 1950’s where there is a prominent memorial; the nearby Feng Chia night market; and the Feng Chia Memorial Park.

Dragonair’s twice-daily services to Taichung will provide Algernon with plenty of opportunities to visit his home town, and he says it also will foster closer connections

across the straits.“The service helps facilitate

travel to and from Taichung as people no longer need to go via Taipei,” he says.

n Haikou services to start in OctoberDragonair will resume scheduled services to Haikou with a daily service starting on 28 October.

The route will be operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft and takes KA’s Mainland China network to 20 destinations.

Dragonair has already launched or relaunched six destinations this year with a new service to Kolkata scheduled to begin in winter 2012.

GREAT INFLU-ENCE: Algernon and the grand-father he never met, Chiu Feng Chia.

Dragonair became the only airline operating direct non-stop flights between Chiang Mai and Hong Kong with the launch of a new sea-sonal service on 1 July.

The flight is operating four times a week using an A320 aircraft and will run until 14 October.

A ceremony was held at Chiang Mai International Airport with CEO Patrick Yeung, Governor of Chi-ang Mai Province M.L. Panadda Diskul, and Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China in Chi-ang Mai, Zhu Weimin, as special guests.

Country Manager Thailand Mag-gie Yeung says the overall popu-larity of Thailand as a leisure desti-nation means this is a good time to launch the service.

“To promote the flights, we’ve placed advertisements in leading Chiang Mai newspapers and ar-ranged radio interviews with Sales & Marketing Manager – Thailand & Myanmar Yongyut Lujintanon,” Maggie says.

“We also issued Smart Saver fares to Hong Kong and beyond and did a trade promotion with agents for groups going to Hong

Kong, North Asia and China,” she adds.

Maggie says advanced book-ings for the summer period are “very strong. And they are gradu-ally building up for the shoulder months of September to mid-Oc-tober.

“We will monitor demand closely to see if there are opportunities to operate the route at other times of the year,” she adds.

Chiang Mai is considered as very much a leisure destination with visitors able to visit Thailand’s tallest mountain, Doi Inthanon,

and the Wat Prathat Doi Suthep temple, which has the added at-traction of a spectacular mountain location.

“Tourists can also visit elephant camps, the night safari and the national park which offers trekking and elephant rides,” Maggie says.

It’s not easy to stand out as a ser-vice star at an airline famous for the quality of its service, but 18 staff managed to do just that at the eighth Betsy Awards presentation ceremony held at Cathay City on 4 July.

Inaugurated in 2005, the Betsy programme rewards frontline staff for going beyond their call of duty to serve the airline’s customers.

Usually, frontline staff from In-flight Services, Airport teams and the out-ports are the awardees, but this year also saw staff

from the Cargo department recog-nised for the first time.

“Honestly, this is my favourite day of the year, because when you see and hear some of the fantas-tic stories about what our service professionals have done here at Cathay Pacific, it is truly inspiring,” Chief Executive John Slosar said at the ceremony.

The top winning team, compris-ing of seven staff from different de-partments across the CX network, cooperated to save a life when an elderly passenger collapsed after landing.

San Francisco-based In-flight Service Manager

Paz Tambunting-Marques, Flight Purser Kai Wong, Senior Purs-ers Annie Chang and Genevieve Cheung as well as Supervisor Wendy Kwan worked together to save her life and get her further treatment.

The crew, together with Bag-gage Services Officers Chun Wa-cheung and Derek Fong, visited the passenger in hospital and also helped look after her husband who is a diabetic.

“Along with Kai Wong, I helped perform CPR on the passenger. Though we are trained in this, it was the first time I had used it in a

real-life situation,” Annie says. “I was a little bit emotional

afterwards because I realised that that had been a real per-son in front of me, but at the

time I felt very calm and, even though it was at the end of

a long flight, I didn’t feel tired,” she adds.

Paz says she wasn’t ex-pecting to receive the Betsy Award, “and it’s great to see that the people who do extra

work are recognised for it. Hopefully, it

will inspire other staff to show the same spirit and willingness to help others,” she says.

The winners all received a Betsy cer-tificate and pin, and can choose from a selection of reward options including a visit to the Boeing

or Airbus aircraft manufacturing plant and an aircraft delivery trip.

When KA206 was grounded in Phnom Penh due to a bird strike, the mostly Putonghua-speaking passengers were taken to a hotel to await updates. The 195 passengers were stressed due to language barriers and uncertainties about travel plans.

Pursers May Chan, Erica Li and Rebecca Chow volunteered to act as interpreters. They comforted the stranded passengers, assisted the Country Manager when he gave briefings and relayed the passengers’ concerns so better travel arrangements could be made.

Calm communicators

GREAT WORK!: John Slosar was joined by senior CX and KA managers to congratulate the 18 Betsy Award winners for 2012 at the presentation ceremony at Cathay City (above). The winning team (minus Kai Wong) get reacquainted following the awards ceremony (left).

When a Mumbai-bound flight was diverted to Chennai due to a medical emergency, Airport Services Manager Sanjay Yadav had only one hour to prepare. Despite the 2am call, a doctor, ambulift and ambulance were all on standby when the plane arrived.

It was difficult to bring the stretcher inside the aircraft and most people were unwilling to touch the passenger as he had vomited blood over himself. But Cargo Services Officer Abraham George, who had been working on a freighter at the time, carried the passenger out of the aircraft and into the ambulance without hesitating.

The passenger was rushed to hospital and Sanjay also visited him a few weeks later while he was recovering.

Heroic rescuers

A couple learnt their flight out of Taipei to Hong Kong was full which meant they wouldn’t be able to change their connecting flight and take an earlier flight to Tehran to see their daughter.

Taipei Airport Services Supervisor Teresa Ku had just finished her shift

when she saw the mother crying and the father pacing. Teresa consoled them and took them to the CX office to calm down.

After checking the flight availability and liaising with

Emirates staff, she managed to secure two seats on an onward flight to Tehran. The couple were eventually able to leave Taiwan later in the day as well as being able to board an Emirates flight from Hong Kong to Tehran the same day.

In a thank you letter, they said would never forget Teresa’s kindness

to them.

An extra mile

A Brisbane-bound flight was diverted to Cebu when a passenger had a stroke onboard.

Cebu’s Airport Services Manager Janice Eve Nabua accompanied the passenger and his wife to the hospital, helped them find accommodation and informed relevant family members of itinerary changes.

Customer Services Officer Mark Pastrana helped change money for the couple and bought meals and daily necessities for them, even on his days off. He also took care of their transportation, including the trip to the airport on the day of departure.

A stroke of kindness

A passenger fell ill on a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong and Customer Services Officer Eva Lo was on hand to assist the passenger and her husband on arrival.

She accompanied the couple to the hospital in the ambulance, and waited with them through the night while tests were carried out. Eva bought food for the couple and helped translate until the passenger was declared medically fit to fly.

As the couple had no friends or family in Hong Kong, Eva booked a hotel room for the husband and went with him to the airport to collect his luggage.

In a letter, the couple said Eva could not be praised highly enough for the care she showed them that night.

Thorough caretaker

A businessman left his backpack containing air tickets, business documents and a mobile phone on a plane. He went to the baggage station and customs hall for help where HKIA Baggage Services Officer Curt Tang had just finished his shift.

Curt personally searched the aircraft for the bag instead of calling the airside arrival team. He eventually found it and ran back to find the passenger. But working late meant he also missed the last train home.

Keen helperA Vancouver-bound flight was diverted to Anchorage be-cause a Filipino passenger had chest pains. The passen-ger did not speak English well and was confused and afraid when emergency personnel in Anchorage questioned him.

Filipino Cargo Sales & Service Agent Eric Adad stepped in to comfort the passenger and helped with the translation.

When the passenger was hospitalised for tests, Eric and his wife visited daily and kept his family updated on his condition.

After his release, Eric found him accommodation and, when he had to take a domestic flight to San Fran-cisco to catch the CX flight back to Hong Kong, Eric paid for the passenger’s ticket.

Finally, he also arranged a Meet and Assist Service for the passenger in San Francisco.

The comforts of home

10

Getting SriLankan ready for allianceCX acts as sponsoring airline for the first time A Cathay Pacific team is gearing up to help prepare newest oneworld member elect SriLankan Airlines to join the alliance.

The announcement that UL was joining was made on 11 June at the alliance’s board meeting in Beijing.

For the first time, CX will act as sponsor, supporting UL through the alliance implementation pro-gramme.

UL already code-shares with member designate Malaysia Airlines and has also announced agree-ments to code-share with other alli-ance partners Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines.

Putting passengers in the picture Visitors to The Gallery in the Business Class Lounge area of The Wing at Hong Kong International Airport now have an opportunity to view the work of well-known artists and photographers, with the launch of a series of exhibitions.

The first display is a series of seven pictures by award-winning photographer Fan Ho. The collection, entitled “Shadows and Silhouettes”, was specially selected by Ca-thay Pacific.

Product Manager, Ground Melody Keung says: “The displays will change every quarter and we will be featuring different mediums such as Chinese calligraphy, oil paint-ings and ceramic tile artworks in the future.”

Melody says the idea of turning The Gallery into an ex-hibit area was to provide passengers with something new and inspiring when they visit.

“It also adds a creative element to our lounge and high-lights CX’s support for local artists and galleries,” she says.

Fan Ho’s elegant black and white photography work was chosen for the iconic images Hong Kong they depict.

“The beautiful work matches the lounge design. The col-lection shows the daily life and movement of the people in bygone days of Hong Kong – going to work, going home, waiting for dinner, kissing your partner,” Melody says.

Jerome Broquard, Strategy & Planning Man-ager, IMT What is the main part of your job? My role is strategy and planning, though I would say that most of my time is split between projects that have some focus on the financial or resource management of IMT.

Recently my work has included developing the resourc-ing rate-card for large IT projects; assembling a panel of agencies for recruitment; and creating de-partmental financial forecasts.

It boils down to a lot of numbers, Excel and PowerPoint!

What is your training/back-ground? I have a degree in Economics but I’ve never had a job that required that particular training.

After college I went to a consult-ing firm in New York City, worked for a dotcom and then joined a startup business in Hong Kong.

I officially joined Cathay Pacific in 2010 after consulting for IMT.

What do you like best about your job? I enjoy the people I work with, and learning from those around me.

There is a lot of diversity in IMT, culturally and in terms of work experience, and it’s good to know that whatever I’m working on, there is usually someone with experience that can help me out.

This has been true for things as different as managing service providers or implementing policy governance.

What is the most challenging part of your job and how do you tackle it? I’ve learned that I always need to strive for clearer and simpler communication.

My role requires communicat-ing to bigger and more diverse groups of people than I’ve done before, and I’ve seen that the more people you are communicat-ing to, the simpler the message must be.

But communicating in a simpler way doesn’t mean that it’s easy and quick to put together usually it’s the opposite if done right.

WHAT I DO

“Being the sponsoring airline requires a lot of hand-holding, es-pecially with IT as the new airline doesn’t know what the system looks like and a lot of integrated system links need to be set up,” says Assis-tant Manager Alliance & Partnership Vivien Ho.

“There are two main parts. The first is to act as an advisor and dis-cuss best practices, experience sharing and project planning. The second is to help set up the IT links,” she adds.

As a founding airline, CX is very experienced regarding the oneworld alliance, though it has never been a

sponsoring airline before. “The decision is made at the Chief

Executive level. As UL is considered a strong strategic partner for CX, we accepted the position,” Vivien says.

The sponsoring and member elect airlines work from a delivery requirements document which out-lines what needs to be done in all key departments, from airports and internal communications to staff travel and sales.

Woody Yuen was designated as Alliance Project Manager on 11 June, after previously working with the PSS team to implement Phase One of the programme.

“The first thing I did was talk to the necessary CX teams to line up the correct person at Cathay Pacific for the corresponding SriLankan per-son to talk to,” Woody says.

“What I’ve already discovered is that a specific task may require more than one person to get it done, because when we broke it down we needed several staff with different skillsets to work on it,” he adds.

UL operates a fleet of 21 aircraft and carried 3.5 million passengers last year to 34 destinations.

Its addition will increase one-world’s reach to some 860 destina-tions worldwide.

Training has started for a batch of 61 Indian crew, the first hired by CX since 1996, before they start official duties on 24 July.

The first batch arrived at Cathay City in June for the start of the induction training.

Many said they were proud to be chosen out of the 6,000 applicants.

“Naturally, there is a lot of expectation on us which we will try our best to meet,” says Pooja Vishwas Gaonkar.

Pooja, who had always dreamed of being a flight attend-ant, previously worked at King-fisher Airlines as ground staff.

“Indian customers may feel more at home if they are served by Indian crew. Because we come from the same country, we will be able to give them the service they expect,” he adds.

The new recruits said their new colleagues spoke a myriad of Indian dialects in addition to Hindi, which will give some pas-sengers a sense of familiarity.

“I think it is great that CX is tapping more into the Indian market,” says Arsalan Shaikh, who was previously a cabin crew trainer for Jet Airways.

Excitement builds for new Indian crew

HELPING HAND: Vivien Ho and Woody Yuen will be working closely to get oneworld’s latest

recruit ready to join.

11

More strategic approach for sustainability reportStakeholder engagement analysed, highlighting areas of concernIncreased transparency and a more stra-tegic approach has been adopted for CX’s Sustainable Development Report 2011 with the inclusion of a “materiality matrix” which highlights areas of the business which are important to stakeholders.

Entitled En route to Sustainability, the re-port received an A+ according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for the fourth consecutive year.

The report has been structured around the five priority areas of the airline’s sus-tainable development strategy – Operating our Flights, Managing our Infrastructure, Interacting with our Customers, Investing in People and Communities and Working with our Supply Chain.

There is also a set of action items and tar-gets aligning with the appropriate areas that will be central to driving the strategy forward over the next five to 10 years.

“By next year, we’ll be able to report on their specific progress which will allow us to take a more targeted approach,” says Head of Environmental Affairs Mark Watson.

The matrix is an analysis of a stakeholder engagement exercise which has been ongo-

Thirty-four Heart Awards were presented to HKIA staff on 13 June with 12 Diamond, 12 Gold and 10 Jade awards given out by air-port managers including General Manager HKIA Paul Loo and Manager Service Deliv-ery Joseph Chan.

A further 18 awards (four individual and 14 team) were selected by staff via online voting, with more than 800 votes received.

Supervisor Vincent Yip won a Diamond Award for helping a passenger get on an overbooked New York flight after finding out a family member had passed away.

Vincent also enlisted the help of anoth-er staff to ensure the passenger was well looked after right up to the boarding gate.

“The experience reminded me that no matter how small the assistance offered to passengers, it can have a great impact,” Vincent says.

Staff show the real heart of servicennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Three CX pilots met a group of journalists at Cathay City on 28 June to share their stories on pursuing a flying career and to offer tips for young people who aspire to be pilots.

The occasion also marked the launch of the ninth edition of Pilot Book II. Senior First Officers Wendy Leung and Ron Chan along with First Officer Sunny Chan all graduated from the CX Cadet Pilot Programme and are among the six co-authors of the bestselling publication.

Ron says young people with a passion for aviation can get cold feet when it comes time to actually pursuing their dreams.

“There can be many concerns – poor eyesight, lack of language skills or an underprivileged background. But the main point is whether you have a passion for flying,” Ron says.

Wendy, who was preparing to study a MPhys Degree in her final college year, decided to change her plans after attending a career talk which featured CX pilots.

While 3% of pilots worldwide are female the situation is improving, and Wendy urges women to give it a try if they are interested.

Pilots inspire future aviators

ing since 2007, with issues being graded ac-cording to their importance to stakeholders and their potential impact on or by CX.

“It allows us to understand the issues our key stakeholders are concerned about and what they feel is important for us to focus ef-forts on,” Mark says.

“It’s a big step in terms of transparency from Cathay Pacific as we are highlighting

the results of stake-holder engagement, reporting on the is-sues they consider vital and, most im-portantly, what we are doing about these issues,” he adds.

This year, the En-vironmental Affairs team has also focused on increasing internal engagement with on-going staff activities, in-cluding the sustainabil-

ity-themed WeSuggest! contest, which was designed to get staff thinking about ideas they can contribute to making sustainability work at CX.

“While we’ve been active on the global scene raising awareness on what we’ve been doing, we also wanted to give staff a clearer idea of our sustainable development efforts,” says Mark.

“It’s important for them to know what we have been doing and how they can be in-volved in their day-to-day role.”

“Winning the award is a great motivator and strengthened my confidence when in-teracting with passengers,” he adds.

Supervisor Eric Yui has quite a few staff awards under his belt including sev-eral Outstanding Staff Awards, Staff of the Year and a few Service Excellence Awards which are presented by the Hong Kong Air-port Authority every year.

At HKIA alone there are seven different types of staff awards and Eric proudly says he’s the only staff to have won them all!

“All these awards are an affirmation of my service efforts,” he says.

“It is also a mission for me to share my experience and customer service skills with colleagues, especially new joiners, so they can learn the Cathay Pacific service philosophy of Service Straight From the Heart,” Eric says.

ON THE WAY: Five strategic priority areas have been higlighted in the latest report.

ALL HEART: Staff were recognised for delivering quality service at the latest HKIA awards.

PASSING THE TORCH: Sunny, Ron and Wendy.

Korea boom gathers steamThe Korean team is getting ready for a busy summer, with a new route, Jeju, an increase in frequencies to Seoul, and an expected surge in passenger numbers.

Traffic has been growing steadily, with the number of Korean visitors to Hong Kong exceeding 1 million for the first time in 2011 – double-digit growth compared to the previous year.

Visitor numbers from Hong Kong to Korea have been growing at similar levels, and interest in the country shows no sign of abating.

Country Manager Korea Clarence Chung says there are a number of factors helping to make Korea a hotspot for Hong Kong travellers.

“The popularity of Korean drama and music in Hong Kong has certainly helped to create interest, as has Ko-rean fashion,” says Clarence.

“And, thanks to the great efforts of the tourism bod-ies here, the infrastructure for international tourists has improved greatly over the last decade. Individual travel in Seoul has long been easy for most people and other places such as Busan and Jeju are quickly catching up,” he adds.

Supply between Korea and Hong Kong has been growing in line with demand and the capacity among all airlines available in July is up 21% on the same month last year.

“Despite the capacity increase, we still think that staff travel will remain tricky during the peak!” Clarence says.

Out of Seoul, the key markets apart from Hong Kong and Taipei, which are served by non-stop services, are Singapore, Sydney, Colombo, Delhi and Bangkok.

“We also carry a good number of honeymooners to Bali in Business Class,” says Clarence.

On the Dragonair routes, more than 70% of the traffic for Busan is generated from Korea, while on the new Jeju route 80% of the traffic is generated from Hong Kong.

“Loads on the Busan route are healthy and the Jeju flight is quickly becoming more popular,” Clarence says.

Most of the growth out of Korea has been in the back of the aircraft, though the big increase in capacity has been putting yield under pressure.

Leisure travel is being boosted through promotions, including “Hong Kong Style” – an ongoing collaboration between CX Korea and the Hong Kong Tourism Board that targets women flying to Hong Kong for shopping and food.

In the front, the team is working on capturing more business traffic by signing up more corporate contracts.

“We emphasise that we have the most frequencies on the route – six a day between Seoul and Hong Kong - understanding that business travellers prefer a choice of timings,” Clarence says.

Penang shows its appreciationThe CX Cargo team in Penang hosted an appreciation lunch for six dedicated staff from the airline’s cargo ground handling agent KLAS.

The lunch was hosted by Cargo District Manager Francis Antony and KLAS Head of Operation Mr Manimaran and was attended by staff from CX Penang and cargo officers and supervisors from KLAS Penang.

Francis presented the six staff with ap-preciation certificates and an aircraft model of the first Boeing Converted Freighter.

Cola fizzes at social gatheringThe Cathay Pacific Auckland Social Club threw a dinner and show for staff at the Calluzzi Bar and Cabaret.

The group was entertained by Miss Cola Gin and her friends Taro Patch and Ling Ling.

Included in the evening was an inter-depart-mental dance-off, with top honours going to the Sales & Marketing team for their special rendition of YMCA.

Rumour has it that when she is not working at Caluzzi’s, Miss Cola Gin can been seen checking in passengers for CX108!

Pennies for childrenThe Vancouver team took part in a penny drive on 28 June with staff bringing in spare change to help children in the local community.

The team were given lunchboxes which could hold 3,000 pennies or enough to provide one lunch for a child.

In a combined effort, with the Airport team, cabin crew and Cargo staff all taking part, 20.7kg of pennies, or enough for 88 lunches, was raised on the day.

The entire airport community helped raise C$45,000 – enough for 1,543 lunches.

A Weigh In Extravaganza was held at the Interna-tional Terminal Food Court that day for passengers to watch and also contribute.

A group of CX staff in London held food sales and nail painting events to help raise extra funds in the leadup to taking part in the Race For Life event at Kempton Park on 8 July.

The five kilometre Race For Life is the largest women-only fund-raising event in the UK which raises money for Cancer Research UK.

Passenger Services Officer Christina Watson says: “There were 11 of us taking part in the race although many others have given up their time and helped in the fundraising events.

“On the day friends, family and colleagues were there to help support us as we run our race,” she adds.

Running against cancerChristina says the staff have different reasons for taking part. “Some have been directly affected by cancer through their

families, friends and colleagues. But the main reason is we want to help make a difference to those who are affected by raising money not only to help find a cure but also to give support for families and friends. A few of us have run the Race For Life before but none of us have done it as a big group like this,” she says.

As of print time, the group had raised more than GBP950 and they are still accepting donations. Go to www.raceforlifespon-sorme.org/cathaypacific-ladies for more information.

Kharen de Castro’s ability to adapt to new people and places started at a young age. Her father’s job as a pilot in the Philippine Air Force meant moving to different bases around the country as well as a stint in the US.

“I learned to be comfortable with strangers when I was quite young,” the Manila Airport Services Supervisor says.

“This made it easier for me when I joined the tourism industry as I already had a basic appreciation and under-standing of different cultures, which gave me confidence when dealing with different people from around the world,” she adds.

Cooking and photography are Kharen’s passions, to the extent that she enrolled in a school for the culinary arts to learn more.

“I definitely enjoyed culinary school, and appreciate the fact that it also taught me to work on my patience,” she says. “I still make the time to cook my speciality dishes, which are mainly Western cuisine, for special occasions.”

Kharen also loves the idea of freezing a moment in time with photos.

“It is really amazing how photos can show one’s per-spective and the different ways they are perceived by viewers,” she says.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to travel because of my work at CX as I am able to take photos of different people and places around the world,” Kharen adds.

Adapting well

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RELATING: Kharen’s ability to be comfort-able with different people started at a young age.

On-camera training as a television news anchor has helped Los Angeles-based Flight Attendant Louis Hoang become a better cabin crew.

“Being a news anchor was not easy mentally and physi-cally. You have to be very careful of what you say and be good at choosing the right words at the right time and situ-ation. Sometimes you have to improvise and make deci-sions in just matter of seconds,” Louis says.

“I learnt how handle situations better as an anchor. This definitely helps me in my current role,” he adds.

Louis, who was born in Ho Chi Minh City but moved to the States when he was 13, worked at a Vietnamese television station for six months before joining Cathay Pa-cific.

On top of reporting the news in the afternoon and the evening, Louis also produced and directed his own show at the station.

Much as he liked the unpredictability and dynamism of his old job, Louis resigned to join CX in July 2011 to fulfil a lifelong dream.

“Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted to explore the world to see everything, from the dirtiest places to the most advanced cit-ies around the globe. Even though I only fly from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and back at the moment, my job creates the oppor-tunity for me to see more of the world,” he says.

Staying anchored

CAMERA GUY: Louis’s TV experi-ence taught him to think on his feet.

Showing soleThe Singapore team participated in a charity mass walking event, Habitat-Barclays Bare Your Sole, on 2 June.

Fourteen staff and their family members walked either the 2.5km or 5km route, all the while enjoying the scenery along the newly opened waterfront.

By participating in the walk, the team helped to raise funds as well as much needed awareness about Habi-tat for Humanity and its various projects.

This year proved to be the most successful yet, with the event attracting more than 5,000 participants and raising more than S$300,000, a significantly higher figure compared to previous years.

All proceeds from the event will go towards building basic homes in impoverished nations.

Celebrating great team-workThe Taiwan Reservations & Ticketing team held a gather-ing to celebrate achieving its service targets after the PSS cutover. The team put in a lot of effort and reviewed every possible solution to make the system upgrade proceed more smoothly.

General Manager Taiwan & Korea Vivian Lo presented certificates to all the staff and encouraged them to continue with the PSS training as the company prepares for the start of Phase Two.

Simon says goodbye The Japan team held a farewell event for Si-mon Large who is returning to Hong Kong after three years as General Manager Japan.

Simon supported the team through several challenging events such as the aftermath of last year’s earthquake and tsunami and the PSS cutover.

The team also welcomed his replacement Clarence Tai, who was last in the outport as Marketing & Sales Manager Japan three years ago, and his new assistant Jonathan

Strengthening alliance tiesThe CX team at JFK airport took part in the “oneday oneteam oneworld” event on 30 May with employees of all member airlines invited to drop by to learn more about the alliance’s products, services and benefits, and their role in delivering them to customers.

With the alliance now into its second decade, the roadshow was also intended to re-energise passion for all things oneworld among those who deliver its services and benefits to their customers.

Individual booths were set up by each airline with Sales Manager, Eastern USA Sebastian Granier and Airport Services Manager James Groark present at the CX booth during the entire event.

Clifford Kwok, Assistant Corporate Sales Development Manager

1. What do you do at CX? I look after the small to medium corporate market in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

2. How long have you been with CX? Five years.

3. Tell us about the Hong Kong charity you organise? I am involved with a community-run charity called Feeding Hong Kong. It collects quality excess food and redistributes it to help feed the poor.

4. What recent work have you done with the charity? I organised a food drive at Cathay City and Dragonair House to col-lect healthy food for the needy.

5. What was the staff response to the drive? My department was very support-ive and we managed to collect one full bin of food. I hope to receive more food and monetary donations from staff in the future.

6. Why is it important for you to do charitable work? I feel that after taking so much from society, it is time to give back.

7. What places in Hong Kong are hardest hit by poverty and hunger? Places where ethnic minorities congregate tend to be the worst, but the poverty gap overall in Hong Kong is striking.

8. What is your philosophy when it comes to charitable work? Every little bit counts.

9. What is your favourite travel destination? Japan.

10. What do you like about Japan?I love the culture and the people are polite and make you feel welcome.

When Senior Purser Kana Okubo first saw a bellydancer perform in Dubai, she decided it was some-thing she wanted to try.

But first she had to over-come her embarrassment at being so exposed in public.

“I didn’t have the nerve to do it in public straight away, she says. “So I bought a DVD and practised at

SAYING GOODBYE: Victor enjoyed lunch with staff from the executive floor before ending his 44-year career.

career developed in parallel with the airline’s growth.

His last job before officially retir-ing in 2008 was General Manager HKIA, but Victor stayed on to help get the Shanghai airport joint ven-ture off the ground.

“From Traffic Officer to GM – that’s quite a move!” Victor smiles.

“I’ve always been impressed by the people, the environ-ment, the business and the opportunities available at Cathay. I’m very grateful to the company for having so much confidence in me,” he adds.

Victor worked his way up the ladder in the air-port team, becoming one of three staff hand-picked to run the Cathay Pacific ramp

In the late 1960s, as Hong Kong went through a period of upheaval and transition, Victor Ho was mak-ing his own life-changing decisions.

After graduating in 1966, Victor started working as a clerical officer with the government, which involved a stint with the Civil Aviation Depart-ment at Kai Tak.

While working at the airport he became impressed by the Cathay Pacific business and decided to make a move, joining the airline as a Traffic Officer in 1968.

Now, almost 44 years later, he is saying goodbye to the company that provided him with a rich and varied career.

After starting out preparing ship-ping documents for the CX opera-tion – which numbered just six Con-vair aircraft when he joined – Victor’s

section in 1975. He later became Deputy Sta-

tion Manager, responsible for cus-tomer service at Kai Tak, but bigger changes beckoned in 1986.

“I was moved to the Staff Depart-

home before joining a class.” Kana eventually started taking

lessons and even started perform-ing at Hong Kong Middle Eastern restaurant Habibi a year ago.

“For the first performance at the restaurant my teacher and friends from the class were there to cheer me on, so that was very encouraging. I perform a few times a week

now,” she says. “I enjoy the chemistry with the

audience. Because bellydancing doesn’t need a partner, you have to rely on the audience to get a re-action,” Kana adds.

Kana choreographs her dances and sometimes a choreographer comes over from Turkey to give workshops.

“At the restaurant, while I have a routine, there is also a lot of spon-taneity. It’s not always a set show as the guests like to join in and I have to build that in and change the performance to suit the cus-tomers,” she says.

Kana says a lot of stamina is required for a 20-minute performance but her sporting

background definitely helps. “I have been sporty since a

young age when I started swim-ming and playing softball. I am also on the CX running team and do kickboxing,” she says.

“The main tip I would give any-one interested in bellydancing is not to be shy. I have seen a room full of women embarrassed at showing their belly area. I tell them they just need to enjoy the dance and they won’t be embar-rassed anymore!”

ment, as it was then called, as a manager looking after outport staff matters,” he recalls.

Two years later he was appointed Manager Beijing, but then was re-called to Hong Kong as Staff Man-ager Hong Kong, responsible also for cabin crew.

The most challenging – and memorable – posting came in 1997 as GM HKIA (designate), getting the team ready for the move to the new airport.

“It was unprecedented – an overnight move of our opera-tion,” says Victor.

“Yes, there were teething problems, but everyone had the determination to make it

happen. The CX can-do spirit functioned very well,” he adds.Over the years, Victor has ap-

preciated the spirit of learning in the airline and the support and encour-agement he received from people such as Peter Sutch, Rod Edding-ton, John Searle and, in his final po-sition, Quince Chong.

“ “I’d like to thank the company and all my colleagues, present and past,” says Victor, who will now be-come a “full-time domestic worker to the boss at home!”

FAREWELL MOMENT: Managers from around the UK gathered to say goodbye to Heathrow-based Engineer Barry Ellett (far right) who was at CX for over 30 years.

NEW IN NZ: The first crew to arrive at the Stamford

Plaza Auckland pose for a welcome picture in the

new crew hotel.

FLYING HIGH: The fourth Vancouver “I Can Fly” has finished with 16 students taking part in the eight-week programme.

The CX Volleyball Team organised the 2012 Interline Volleyball Tournament, held from 23-24 June at Cathay City.

Held in Hong Kong for the first time, 20 teams from 13 airlines joined the event, making it the largest one ever.

CX managed to put together four teams to take part in the event with one team taking second place. Czech Air were crowned champions with Air France coming third.

Volleyball team organiser Sarah Chu says: “We have more than 40 active members and we practice several times a month.

“We did very well this year by being able to put together four teams and coming second, sixth, eighth and 13th. As we did so well, we had a celebration hotpot dinner afterwards with a prize presentation,” she adds.

Anyone interested in joining the CX Volleyball Team should contact Sarah Chu at CCASNCH.

Volleying to the top

To enter, visit the online quiz entry form on the CX World site. The deadline is noon on Friday, 10 August.

Ten first prize winners this month will receive a Restylane Whitening Facial Treatment worth HK$2,380 from Pretty House.

Pretty House has 16 beauty centres throughout Hong Kong providing a range of body and facial treatments from profes-sional beauty specialists.

The Restylane Whitening Facial Treatment uses rich hyaluronic acid which is good for all skin types and promotes

a healthy glowing skin. For more information, visit www.prettyhouse.com.hk

The second prize winner will receive a Maxwell & Williams 22-piece dim sum set as well as an elemental kitchen condiment set five-piece grinder set.

The snazzy dim sum set (left) includes four pairs of chopsticks, chopsticks stands, bowls, placemats and a bamboo steamer.

The condiment set (below) consists of a glass pepper grinder, a glass salt grinder, a stainless steel storage caddy and glass oil or dressing pourers.

Maxwell & Williams started from humble beginnings in Melbourne but today is a global brand with a presence in over 30 countries around the world including the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy and Canada.

For more information, go to www.maxwellandwilliams.com

SO LONG, GOODBYE: CSA Christine Cheng (centre) was

joined by VP Canada Lavinia Lau and Toronto ASM Glen

Peace at her retirement party, marking 34 years with CX in

Hong Kong and Canada.

GREAT JOB!: Taipei Engineer Didi Wei (third from left)

spent four weeks working with the Heathrow team. MOVING ON: Charly Xu was presented with a gift

from the Shanghai team before taking up his new as-

signment in Chengdu.

HAPPY SURPRISE: Sri Lanka’s Ruhan Abbas was thrown a surprise birthday lunch to celebrate her special day.

FUN IN THE SUN: More than 70 staff and family members spent a relaxing afternoon barbequing with directors on Shek O beach.

SCORING HIGH: ISD was crowned champions

narrowly beating the FOP team in the final of the inter-

departmental basketball tournament.

BAKING UP A STORM: A bake sale initiated by the IT Department raised more than HK$15,000 for the Sunnyside Club.

SHOW US YOUR TIPS!CX World welcomes staff travel tips from across the network – email us at CCD#SCT

n Rocking in PenangThe Hard Rock Hotel, Penang is offering CX staff discounted

rates starting at 296 Malaysian ringgit (US$92).

The 250-room luxury resort is situated along the famous beaches of Batu Ferringhi. The hotel offers a range of recreation activi-ties including a kids club, teen club, spa and watersports area.

Guests can enjoy five dining outlets including the world famous Hard Rock Café, with live music every night; an all-day dining restaurant called Starz Diner; a pizzeria by the poolside; and The Shack swim-up pool bar.

Go to Travel Desk for more information.

n Frozen fiestaThe NZ IceFest is being held from 14 September to 14 October in Christchurch’s Hagley Park.

The area will be transformed into an ice station in September to highlight the city’s links with Antarctica.

The ice station at Hagley Park will include a hovercraft, a large ice skating rink, and talks on the environmental and conservation issues surrounding Antarctica.

Go to www.nzicefest.co.nz/ for more information.

n Highland fling The famous Braemar Gathering will be on again on 1 September at the Princess Royal & Duke of Fife Memorial Park.

The Braemar Gathering is the epitome of the traditional Scottish Highland Games and includes athletes hurling cabers, stones and hammers as far as they can.

The massed pipe bands and Scottish dancing provides the true flavour and sound of a Highland gathering.

For more, go to www.braemargathering.org

This month’s contribution comes from User Support Analyst Wai Keung-chong who enjoyed hanami (flower viewing) in Sapporo and Hakodate in Hokkaido prefecture in early June.

“I was surprised to see the trees were already in full bloom in Hokkaido,” he says.

“I really enjoy viewing natural scenery as it helps drive away my stress and worries,” Keung-chong adds.

The picture was taken at Goryokaku Park which is both a park and a special histori-cal site. It is also home to the Hakodate city museum.

“ The grounds are a favourite spot for both locals and visitors to enjoy hanami,” Keung-chong says.

HK$500 for a travel tale!

UNDER THE SEA: There’s plenty of marine life to be viewed in lovely Raja Ampat. The area also has limestone karsts (below) and the luxury Misool Eco Resort (above).

Rob Bradshaw, outgoing Country Manager Indonesia, was thrilled to visit one of the world’s great diving sites

Every month, CX World invites all CX staff to tell unusual, interesting or just downright quirky tales of travel moments around the world.

Sponsored by Inflight Sales, the lucky sender of the main story receives HK$500 worth of inflight sales products of their choice from the ever-changing collection of over 260 items on offer (excluding liquor and cigarettes).

Go shopping at www.cathaypacific.com/dutyfree

There are only a few places in the world that every diver wants to get to. Raja Ampat, in remote north East Indonesia, is one of them.

Stunningly clear water, amazing limestone karst scenery and some of the most diverse sea life in the world, including large sharks and manta rays, are great rea-sons for heading there.

There’s a wide variety of places to stay in Raja Ampat, ranging from budget home-stay accommodation to luxury resorts. We were fortunate to stay at the Misool Eco Resort which is remote – a four-hour boat transfer from the nearest airport – but luxurious and beautiful.

Misool is fully integrated into its surroundings. The accommodation is made exclu-sively from driftwood found in the area and everything is done in a sustainable way. Diving rules are also quite strict, and it felt reassuring to dive with such a responsible outfit.

Daytime dives offer up turtles, sharks, schooling barracuda, jacks and other large fish, while on dusk or night dives you can spot mandarin fish, flasher wrasse, all sorts of crabs and other shellfish.

We saw mantas on three of our dives, including a five-metre specimen, and saw bizarre walking sharks on two dives. Most of the dives were world class and some were truly exceptional.

Back at the resort we enjoyed relaxed living at its best – and the benefits of no data or telephone coverage! The water chalets have outside (but private) showers, a decking hammock and stairs that lead directly down into the shallow lagoon that is a nursery for, amongst other fish, black tip reef sharks.

On the last day, we went on a fantastic boat ride through some of the most impres-sive limestone karsts, to two places where 5,000-year-old rock paintings still survive. It was very special to see these paintings – and incredible that they have survived.

On the day we returned from Papua we learnt that we’ll be moving to Papua New Guinea, and the promise of more spectacular diving. An open invitation awaits those who are up for an adventure!