Cathay Pacific to make 600 head office staff redundant

Cathay Pacific is to cut 25% of management roles at its headquarters as part of the airline’s transformation programme to deal with increased competition from mainland Chinese rivals and fewer premium class passengers. The company said on Monday it would cut a total of 600 jobs across senior, middle management and non-managerial roles at its Hong Kong headquarters. It will cut 190 management roles, representing 25% of management with 400 roles in non-managerial positions also to go, or 18% of non-managerial posts. Cathay Pacific reported its first annual loss in eight years for 2016 at HK$575m (US$74m) after being hit by increased competition from state-owned Chinese rivals, a fall in business travellers and fuel hedging losses. Cathay Pacific CE Rupert Hogg, who replaced former CEO Ivan Chu in April said: "We greatly appreciate and respect our people’s dedication, hard work and achievements. However, we have had to make tough but necessary decisions for the future of our business and our customers.... As we look to the future we will have a new structure that will make us leaner, faster and more responsive to our customers’ needs. It is the first step in the transformation of our business."<br/>