Cathay Pacific targets to recruit 800 cadet pilots in 2023-2024

HONG Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific recently celebrated the graduation of its first group of cadet pilots since the Pandemic.

Nineteen graduates will now join the airline as second officers in July after completing the 55-week Cadet Pilot Training Programme.

There are currently 400 cadet pilots in training, the airline said in a statement.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Hong Kong's Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung said: "It has all along been the Government's policy to promote localisation by encouraging local airlines to invest resources in training local cadet pilots.

"We firmly believe that in the long run, only by enlarging the pool of local aviation talent can we sustain the development of Hong Kong's aviation industry. In this regard, we very much appreciate Cathay Pacific's continuous efforts in promoting manpower training, especially in nurturing local aviation talent."

Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau said: "Developing aviation talent has always been at the heart of who we are as Hong Kong's home carrier. Today is made even more special as the month of June coincides with the 35th anniversary of our Cadet Pilot Training Programme."

As of this month, more than 1,000 of Cathay Pacific's pilots are graduates of the Cadet Pilot Training Programme. These include 185 captains, of which more than 40 are training captains. The airline also has seven management pilots who originated from this programme.

"As we rebuild Cathay and the Hong Kong international aviation hub, Cathay Pacific targets to recruit more than 800 cadet pilots in 2023 and 2024 combined, in addition to the approximately 250 cadet pilots recruited in 2022," Ms Lau said.

The airline currently operates two parallel courses for training its cadets. Today's group of 19 graduates completed their cadet-training activities as part of the airline's original, long-standing programme hosted by Flight Training Adelaide (FTA).

The other is a new integrated course developed with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and its own in-house Cathay Academy.

The first batch of cadets are expected to graduate in August this year. The integrated course sees cadets undertake theoretical ground training in Hong Kong, flight training at AeroGuard Flight Training Centre in Arizona or FTA in Adelaide, and multi-crew simulator training at Cathay City.

A total of 177 cadet pilots are expected to graduate from both programmes in 2023, the airline said.