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American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said this week that the company will revise its pay proposals for its 14,000 pilots, acknowledging pay standards have increased since the company made its most recent offer before the pandemic. The airline had previously floated a 4% date-of-signing increase plus 3% annual raises after that. Then Covid-19 roiled the industry and put talks between carriers and labor unions throughout the industry on hold. “It was industry-leading at the time we proposed it,” Isom said in a video message to pilots posted Monday. “As the pandemic wanes, the standard for compensation has gone up.” Isom’s message came days after two of American’s subsidiaries, regional carriers Piedmont and Envoy, extended big raises to its pilots, including a temporary 50% pay hike through the end of August 2024, in hopes of easing a pilot shortage that has curbed growth plans. United Airlines last month became the first major carrier in the pandemic to reach a contract deal with its pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association. Union leadership is set to vote on that agreement next week. If passed, it will go to pilots for a vote. “We will take other carriers’ ratified agreements, including United’s, into account and update our pay proposals quickly when details are known,” Isom said. “Our team will be paid well and be paid competitively. You are not going to fall behind network peers.” American’s pilots and those at other carriers, including Delta’s, have picketed in recent months to protest the grueling schedules airlines have sold to capitalize on the rebound in travel demand.<br/>

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. is planning to recruit 4,000 staff between now and the end of 2023 to replenish its severely depleted workforce and gear up for an anticipated recovery in air travel as Hong Kong rebuilds itself as an aviation hub, according to Chief Executive Officer Augustus Tang. While the hiring spree would still leave Cathay with significantly fewer employees than pre-Covid times with staff numbers at levels last seen in 2007, the plan marks a turnaround in the airline’s outlook after three years of turmoil and cost cutting. Cathay employed about 16,700 people at the end of 2021. “Hong Kong is a very important international aviation hub and it is not off the map at all,” Tang said in an interview with Bloomberg News at Swire Pacific Ltd.’s Hong Kong headquarters earlier Wednesday. “In preparation for the recovery, we need to recruit well in advance because it takes a lot of time to recruit and train.” Cathay intends to bring in 700 pilots and about 2,000 cabin crew, with the remaining positions open for frontline airport staff working in areas such as customer service, Tang said. Including Cathay’s subsidiaries, the total hiring plan numbers around 8,000. Cathay’s workforce has shrunk by about 40% during the Covid-19 pandemic, more than other major carriers, including regional rival Singapore Airlines, which is bouncing back after the Southeast Asian nation dropped quarantine rules in April. Hong Kong is now making tentative steps to loosen travel restrictions and has lowered mandatory hotel quarantine to seven days from 21.<br/>

Cathay Pacific is considering renewing its aging fleet of aircraft, particularly for short- and medium-haul trips, potentially setting up a battle between Airbus and Boeing for a lucrative round of new orders. CEO Augustus Tang compared the renewal of regional jets to Cathay’s original purchase of Boeing’s 777 long-haul aircraft, which became the backbone of its intercontinental fleet, eventually growing to 53 aircraft. “We are constantly looking at the fleet requirements,” Tang said Wednesday. “We haven’t come up with a decision as to when we will be going to the market, but this is a topic we are looking at very closely, particularly the regional fleet.” Any order would need to take into account fleet growth and different types of aircraft required for the expansion of Hong Kong airport, which is adding a third runway that will be complete by the end of 2024, Tang said. He described the fleet decision as “crucial,” but declined to say how big it might be. Cathay operates about twice as many Airbus than Boeing aircraft across the group’s 234 passenger and freighter aircraft. In the widebody segment, Airbus make up 60% of jets plying regional and long-haul trips. Hong Kong’s largest airline has 51 A330s and 17 Boeing 777-300s that flew mainly to India, Australia and North and Southeast Asian cities before Covid forced a drastic scaling back of its network. At least two dozen of the aircraft will be 20 years old or more by 2024. The renewal could open up a bidding war between Airbus’s A330neos or A350s and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. “We are looking at every possibility,” Tang said. “We are not ruling out anything. The suppliers would love to know exactly what we want, but put that aside, it is bound to be an Airbus or Boeing variant or both,” he said. Boeing’s 737 Max narrowbody would also be considered, the Cathay CEO added.<br/>

Qantas passengers are starting their holidays without their bags, as the airline strains under demand. The delays have forced travellers to spend hundreds of dollars on new clothes with some waiting almost a week for bags to arrive. Louis, who did not want to give his surname, works as a baggage handler for Rex. He said the staff shortage was being felt across every airline. “Virgin are short, Swissport who do Qantas, they’re advertising a $3k bonus for anyone who joins. They’re trying to get people in but I think the nature of the job and low wage makes it unattractive for new people.” The hourly pay is $23 and the work is hard, physically demanding and stressful. “It’s extremely busy, we’re run off our feet and we don’t have enough staff,” Louis said. TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said the baggage issue had been driven by the fact that thousands of handlers lost their jobs during the pandemic – a claim Qantas denies. “Until decent aviation jobs with secure conditions are protected through federal regulation, expect the long queues, baggage delays, chaos and confusion we’ve seen across airports this long weekend to become permanent industry features,” Kaine said.<br/>