Cathay Pacific, rising high in Asia’s overcrowded skies
Entrance to Cathay Pacific headquarters
It’s an overcast day in Hong Kong and Niki sits alone outside the Cathay Pacific Headquarters. Since 2006 the exact replica of the airline’s second aircraft, Niki, has been the face that greets those who enter the massive structure, serving as a symbol of the airline’s years of service in Hong Kong.
Decked in the livery of the late 1940 , Niki was the second DC3 aircraft operated by Cathay Pacific. The first, fondly known as Betsy, which was used at the commencement of operations in 1946 resides at the Hong Kong Science Museum.
While Cathay Pacific City is the heart of operations for Cathay Pacific Airlines, it is also home to its employees from all across the globe who give life to the airlines’ defining expression a “Life Well Travelled.” Just minutes away from Hong Kong International Airport and true to its name, Cathay City comprises all the aspects of convenience and comfort of a modern and vibrant mini city.
Stretching across more than nine acres of reclaimed land on the southeast corner of Hong Kong International Airport, Cathay Pacific City is one of the largest corporate head office facilities in Asia on the Chek Lap Kok island.
Here, employees are nurtured and mentored in a unique working culture that fosters a process of continual learning in a manner that is creative, collaborative and fun.
Cathay Pacific Airlines Country Manager, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Aldric Chau
Inside its open-plan office towers and surrounding buildings, Lankan journalists are acquainted with this unique lifestyled work environment at Cathay Pacific, during a media tour last weekend of the complex conducted by the bubbly, Asst. Corporate Communications Manager, Sueann So.
The City comprises three office buildings – North, Central and South with each tower boasting 10 floors. Within the same vicinity is a 4-star, 23-storey staff hotel, called the Headland with a capacity to house 501 rooms exclusively for use by Cathay Pacific Airways, Cathay Dragon (subsidiary of Cathay Pacific) and qualifying associated employees. The Headland Hotel is managed by the Swire Group to which Cathay Pacific is also member.
Aside from these facilities the complex features an airline stores building as well as a leisure centre – The Dakota Club for employees where membership is not required and operates on a pay per use basis. The leisure centre comes with a 25-metre outdoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Tennis Court, private showers and lockers, dance studio, music room and more.
The spacious head office complex with its informal meeting space and briefing rooms are playfully decorated and named after a destination of the airline which hangs above the entrance – similar to a boarding gate at the airport. In addition, Cathay City also includes supermarkets for staff, retail stores, a food court and coffee shops — spaces that enhance interactions with staff of different cultures with plenty of room to learn and grow as a family with each member’s journey enhancing the airline’s ultimate outcome of being the best.
This year will mark more than 70 -years of operation for the airline that encourages its staff for exceptional efforts behind the scenes. This is done through their annual Niki and Betsy Awards Ceremony which celebrate staff who go the extra mile for a customer or colleague, doing something exceptional or something that inspire others and embodies the spirit of the airlines’ brand.
Greenery on the roof-top
With safety being a priority for the airline, the complex features a safety training school as well as a flight training centre. Walking inside the classrooms of the flight training centre journalists are met with exact furnishings of the inside of a typical Cathay Pacific flight.
The exact seats and galleys equipped with working stoves and storage facilities found in precisely the same set -up as an active flight. Here freshers are taken through very detailed procedures of how in-flight services should be conducted. Sueann tells us that Cathay crew have an annual scheme of testing for to stay updated with exams where each active member is expected to pass. Before every flight, crew are briefed and quizzed on the safety features of the flight they board each time. In addition, pilots take written and intense evaluations every six months at the centre in order to remain prepared for every eventuality.
The environmentally conscious design of the main building has left its mark on employees too. With space for gardens being extremely scarce and land itself being a luxury in Hong Kong, we are taken to Cathay City’s organic garden in the sky – a rooftop vegetable patch that Country Manager, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Aldric Chau is proud to introduce us too. Here, Chau tells us that the rooftop with its greenery offers a quiet contemplative space for staffers during their work breaks to tend to the growing patches of vegetables and leafy vegetation.
A room at the flight raining centre
The tending process itself, he says serves as a pleasant pause for those working in a fast paced industry and on the plus side staffers can pluck ripened produce to prepare their lunches, exchange with a colleague or take the produce home. Furthermore, the plants are nourished using organic compost produced in a small corner on the rooftop itself using remnants from the cafeteria. We learn that a simple remedy of chili and garlic is sprayed on the leaves of the vegetation to keep bugs at bay as no harmful pesticides are used on the hand-tended garden.
The pride that Cathay staffers take in this little initiative is a small reflection of the camaraderie among its team and an openness to exchange ideas that has blossomed within its city. The very sentiments that complement their mantra that being able to journey well together whether it be along one’s professional life or a simple holiday time-out, all contribute to a life that is rewarding.
For Cathay Pacific, its philosophy clearly begins at home and remains at the heart of its people who endeavour to showcase a taste of its homegrown lifestyle-experience to those who grace its cabins.
