Flight attendants and ground crew for Hong Kong’s de facto flagship carrier will receive a 1% pay rise next year while most of its staff will get a one-month bonus, the loss-making airline said Thursday. Cathay Pacific quietly reached a deal with its flight attendants union, which had asked for a 3.5% pay rise. The pay rise is below the city’s inflation rate for the first 10 months of this year, which averaged 1.4%, according to the latest figures from the Census and Statistics Department. The rise compared with a 2% increase for all non-managerial staff for 2017. A Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said junior and middle-level staff would receive a 13th month bonus payment, which means around 97% of staff would be eligible for it. But the amount would be capped at HK$35,000. Despite earlier demanding a 3.5% pay rise for all staff, the union accepted the more modest deal benefiting 80% of staff, citing the airline’s restructuring and financial difficulties. Some 16,000 Cathay Pacific staff are based in Hong Kong. The pay rise benefits junior cabin crew, check-in staff, ground crew and office staff. “We feel a bit disappointed,” union vice-chairwoman Dora Lai Yuk-sim said. “However, thinking about the whole package and the situation with Cathay, we would like to take a step forward to go through the tough times with the company.”<br/>The union added it expected the carrier to make a turnaround next year following the restructuring.<br/>