Troubled Dragonair forced to cancel flights

Hong Kong's second-biggest airline, Dragonair, is being forced to cancel up to eight flights a day as pilots quit the airline in unprecedented numbers, the airline confirmed Sunday.

Six captains resigned within a week earlier this month, and 34 first officers or captains have handed in their notice in the last six months, say pilots who link the departures from the short-haul carrier to a dispute over rosters and pay.

On October 13, eight flights were cancelled - five between Hong Kong and Shanghai and two between Hong Kong and Taipei - with crew shortages cited as the reason in all cases and specifically cockpit crew shortages cited in two cases.

A year after its 1.5-billion-US-dollar takeover by Cathay Pacific, cancellations by the airline, which flies to routes around China and the region, are running at a rate of two a day, pilots say.

Pilots claim the resignations have been sparked by "bullying and intransigence," saying management have repeatedly refused to implement rostering agreements to ease the strain on pilots handling a growing volume of flights.

Dragonair, which has around 400 mostly expatriate pilots and operates around 100 flights a day, said in a statement Sunday that it was being impacted by a worldwide shortage of cockpit personnel.

A spokeswoman said that eight cancellations on October 13 were due to "crew sickness." The airline had already hired 57 new pilots this year and planned to hire 10 more before the end of the year and another 50 next year, she said.

One senior pilot who has been with Dragonair for more than 10 years said: "I have never seen morale so low. Pilots are leaving because they're thoroughly fed up with the management.

"We haven't had a pay rise for seven years, but it's not really a pay issue. We have asked for a roster agreement for years and years. Our union has provided two draft agreements, but management just look at them and nothing happens. The management are bullying and intransigent."

The pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that eight cancellations in one day was unprecedented.

"It has usually been about two cancellations a day, but the situation is clearly getting worse," he said.

Dragonair pilots have imposed a contract compliance policy since March 2005 in their efforts to secure a rostering agreement, and a captain familiar with ongoing negotiations between the pilots association and management said talks were deadlocked.

Another senior pilot said: "The salary for a Dragonair pilot is no longer competitive because of inflation and the state of the US dollar, and the rostering situation has become untenable. With the increase in the flights schedule and the wet leased flights in China, some guys are doing 14 overnights a month, and they're just fed up with it.

"Our pilots are leaving to join Korean Air, Emirates and even Air China, which is offering postings based in Australia. In one week, we had six pilots leave - all of them captains."

A spokeswoman for Dragonair denied that the resignations were linked to the rostering dispute.

"There are currently more vacancies than there are pilots throughout the industry," she said. "Therefore, it is not surprising to see a degree of pilot turnover at Dragonair and many other airlines."

She said that talks have been ongoing with the Dragonair Pilots' Association "for some time" over issues including pay, conditions and rostering practices.

"We are awaiting a response from the pilots' representatives to our offer on the salary and benefits packages, which was made in early October," the spokeswoman said. "In addition, the company has formed a team to review the provision of some of the additional benefits provided to many of its pilots."

Source: dpa, 28. Oct, 2007