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1. Cathay says Australia is on airline's radar
he airline will look to increase its presence in the Australian market once economic conditions stabilise.

Speaking to The Australian after his address to a business lunch in Hong Kong, Mr Slosar wanted to offer additional services into Australia in the longer term.

"Economies go up and down, and the economy either co-operates or doesn't co-operate, so we will stage our growth to fit in with that as opportunities arise.

"Long term, we certainly want to serve more places at more times in Australia."

Cathay Pacific already operates flights out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Cairns.

More immediately, The company intended to join in competition for the growing premium-economy market, with the airline set to begin offering the new class later this year.

Cathay Pacific will also be upgrading its business-class seat. Mr Slosar said the new design would better cater for "side sleepers" than traditional business-class flat beds.

The company, which has on order 95 aircraft with a combined list price of $HK200 billion ($24.6bn), is also looking at increasing its services to Latin America and Africa, and it has increased services to the US.

China's growth as a travel destination would be the key theme of the coming decade in travel, and said current predictions of a cooling economy in China would likely be as inaccurate as similar predictions of the past few years.

"Somehow China has dealt pretty well with the cards it has received in the game, and somehow it has made the right things happen," he said.

"Betting against their ability to do that and betting against the industriousness of the Chinese people has never been a good bet. That's one of the reasons why we think there's a lot more to do in China."

The company would not be abandoning its "people and service" advertising campaign -- which features the slogan "the team who go the extra mile to make you feel special" -- in the wake of a sex scandal that rocked the company last month.

Photographs featuring a Cathay pilot and flight attendant in compromising positions in the cockpit of a plane were widely distributed on the internet and in newspapers last month. The pair have since left the airline.

"There is speculation, which I've seen in the press, that said as a result of our YouTube interlude we may be phasing out our 'people and service' campaign. Let me just say that is complete rubbish," Mr Slosar said.

"It has been a fantastically successful campaign and we will be rolling out phase two fairly shortly.

"We have taken a little bit of a breather, because that's what you normally do in these sorts of circumstances, but by no means are we changing the course of our strategy."

2. What it takes to become a Qantas pilot

IF you've flown with Qantas lately you will have heard the airlines' pilots utilising their "captain's announcement" over the cabin public address as an opportunity to press their industrial relations campaign against the management of the airline, which recently announced plans to launch two new carriers in Asia.
“We are proud of our profession and our airline,” the pilots’ prepared spiel goes, “and trust you will support us in keeping Qantas pilots in Qantas aircraft, and ensuring our great iconic airline remains uniquely Australian.”

The restructure, Qantas pilots believe, will mean that not only will existing jobs be lost in the cockpit but also the famed culture of safety with which the airline has prided itself will be eroded with the hiring of more, possibly inferior, Asia-based foreign pilots on cheaper wages. Already the airline has announced the loss of 1,000 jobs at the airline.

Certainly, hearing an Australian-accented voice on the PA during a flight around the world, whether it’s on Qantas or another foreign airline, tends to fill this traveller with confidence as we remain a nation with an unblemished track record in airline safety in terms of loss of lives, at least in the past 60 years.

That said, it was a surprise, even a shock, last week to read that the Geneva-based Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) not even include Qantas in its list of the world’s 10 safest airlines. Air France, at the top of the list, was only a few months ago finally discovering the wreckage of a crash off Brazil two years in which 216 passengers died.

The last fatal accident suffered by Qantas, in contrast, was in 1951, with none in the jet-age – a remarkable achievement for one of the longest of long-haul airlines. However, there have been some scary incidents in recent times, such the infamous A380 engine explosion in 2010 (see below).

But, really, what exactly is so special about Qantas pilots anyway? What is that provides them with such an aura?

Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation, says that a Qantas A380 pilot would fly fewer hours per month than the equivalent captain at Emirates. The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) says Qantas pilots fly an average of 724 hours a year compared to 800 hours for Emirates pilots.

The Doc asked members of the AIPA what makes Qantas pilots special.

Safety first
Qantas is one of the world's oldest airlines, with a 90-year safety culture. Its safety procedures have evolved and taken hold over a long period of time. What this means is commercial pressures are less likely to alter the safety culture, because the safety culture is so well established. Essentially, if a Qantas pilot thinks there is even the slightest safety concern with a flight, they won't fly - no matter how unprofitable that may be.

Disaster plan
Recent incidents show the importance of flying experience. In the case of the 2010 incident where a Qantas A380 suffered a twin engine explosion, the overwhelming consensus is that anything short of the tens of thousands of hours of collective experience on the flight deck would have resulted in one of the worst crashes of all time.

Experience counts
No matter how experienced a pilot is when they are employed by Qantas they still need to do their time as a second officer, which amounts to thousands of flying hours. After that they need to serve time as a first officer and only then can they make it to captain.

There are no shortcuts - and the fact that Qantas has second officers (which many airlines don't) means every Qantas first officer and captain is impeccably experienced. All Qantas captains now have 10,000 hours or more, and most of the First Officers would be very close to 10,000, if not more.

In comparison, most low-cost carriers have captains with half the experience of Qantas Flight Officers. Qantas pilots are also a good mix of general aviation and military backgrounds. This enables pilots to learn the best of both from each other.

Promotional value
Qantas has always operated on the ethos of “safety before schedule”. The concept is repeatedly drummed into new recruits from the moment they join the company. It is repeatedly emphasised that there is no pressure too great to force a Qantas pilot to fly with any safety concern.

Competitive streak
The recruitment process takes approximately seven to eight months and involves six stages: written application, psychometric profiling, skills testing (manual manipulation as well as mathematical, language and spatial problem-solving), a flying assessment, a panel interview (with the panel comprises of two experienced Qantas pilots plus a recruitment specialist) and a medical assessment by a Qantas physician.

Only about 20 per cent of direct entry applicants (qualified pilots already working in the industry) who meet Qantas minimum criteria at the end of the recruitment process successfully gain employment with the carrier.

Qantas pilots