There might be unneeded turbulence for Cathay Pacific passengers this coming holiday season, as the airlines captains have started work-to-rule action.
This tends to mean that the pilots don’t show up for work early, work only the required hours (no overtime) and may not defer some maintenance that could be done later resulting in delays and/or flight cancellations.
You can read more about this on SCMP’s website here and on Bloomberg here.
Here’s an excerpt from South China Morning Post:
Cathay had faced the prospect of multiple labour actions during the busy holiday travel season, but has so far been able to stave off large-scale disruptions.
Meanwhile, the Aircrew Officers Association, which represents 2,100 of the airline’s 2,900 pilots, ended its first day of a work-to-rule action with little impact on the flights.
In such an action, pilots do the bare minimum required by their contracts. They do not work on their days off, nor show up early.
Conclusion
Let’s hope that the airline and its pilot union can settle this issue soon before it starts to affect Cathay’s flight schedule during the year-end busy travel schedule.
If you are flying on Cathay Pacific before this issue has been resolved, it makes sense to pay closer attention that the flights is not canceled/delayed and take action when needed.