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Celebrating 50 years of Bond To celebrate 50 years of James Bond on film, passengers can now view some of the best-known Bond movies, watch documentaries, listen to Bond soundtracks and even sip on the secret agent’s favourite drink.

On StudioCX, passengers can choose from six classic films featuring the celebrated spy: Dr. No, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Casino Royale. The selec-tion encompasses the full range of the 23 Bond movies made since 1962 and feature all the different actors who have portrayed 007 over the years.

Two television programmes will be featured in the Lifestyle/Documentary section – The Cars of James Bond and a biography of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Even before boarding, eligible passengers can celebrate the 50th anni-versary by sipping on James Bond’s favourite martini which is being offered to - passengers at The Pier (First and Business Class sections), The Wing (Business Class) and The Cabin (Business Class) lounges in Hong Kong.

Produced by CX’s Corporate Communication Department

7/F North Tower, Cathay Pacific City, Lantau, HK

Publisher: Cecilia Leung Managing Editor: Mark Tindall

Editor: Joyce WongEnquiries: 2747-5293

GalaCXy ID: CCD#SCT Email: ccd#sct@cathaypacific.com

Fundraising efforts awardedCathay Pacific was among the recipients of the Hong Kong Red Cross Annual Big Donors – Dia-mond Award on 18 October.

The CX Group’s donation of more than HK$10 million to various relief projects in 2011 was the highest among all the corporations in Hong Kong.

“Through CX’s corporate social responsibility activities we encourage staff to help out via direct donations or volunteer work,” said Employee Services Manager Bob Nipperess, who represented CX at the awards ceremony.

Malaysia’s joining date confirmedMalaysia Airlines will become a full member of oneworld with ef-fect from Friday 1 February 2013, offering the alliance’s full range of services and benefits.

The national airline of Malaysia received clearance to board one-world after successfully complet-ing a thorough review of its readi-ness conducted by Qantas, which is sponsoring its entry into the alliance, with the oneworld central team.

Malaysia Airlines will sub-stantially expand the alliance’s network in Southeast Asia, where it will add 14 destinations and one country – Brunei – to the oneworld map and strengthen the alliance’s connectivity between many key business cities in Asia and other parts of the world.

Best pyjamas in the sky!The Australian Financial Review has named CX’s Shanghai Tang pyjamas as the best in the air.

The article in the Sophisticated Travel-

ler section com-pared pyjamas

from five leading carriers to find out which deliver

“true comfort and style in the air”. CX’s First Class offering

was a clear winner with a 4-star rating for

comfort and five stars for design and

the “at home” feeling.

Great effort from teams gets New York operation back on track

Sandy wreaks havocTeams around the network pulled together when Hurricane Sandy assailed the north-east coast of the USA and led to 20 CX passen-ger sectors being cancelled and four freighter services diverted.

Sandy’s passage forced the closure of John F Kennedy Inter-national Airport, with extensive areas being inundated with water and littered with storm debris.

Flights from Hong Kong to New York were suspended on 29 and 30 October. Coaches were ar-ranged for passengers who de-parted on 28 October only to arrive in New York and find the city’s pub-

lic transport network closed down. Services resumed on 1 November

with CX888 departing at 1am. An extra sector – CX2846 and CX2845 – was arranged on 3 November to get stranded passengers away.

Senior Vice President Americas Tom Owen says that the planning done in advance of Sandy’s arrival and the reaction to the events of the storm showed the CX teams at their very best, with close coop-eration between Hong Kong and the USA to minimise disruption.

“The Airport team at JFK, led by Airport Services Manager James Groark, coordinated its plans

through daily conference calls with the Customer and Commer-cial Control team and key Head Office departments,” Tom says.

“A CX flight was the last one to leave JFK before the storm swept in, and we were one of the first to return with a full complement of staff braving the commute to receive and dispatch flights,” he adds.

The North American Reserva-tions call centre, based in Van-couver, collected phone and email enquiries from passengers and prioritised callbacks for rebooking and protection.

“There was a tremendous effort

here to reply to each and every passenger enquiry. Hong Kong was equally busy and the Marco Polo Club Service Centre assisted by taking care of our elite flyers,” Tom says.

Back in Hong Kong, the Reser-vations & Ticketing teams were in full force to handle the disruption with thousands of phone calls be-ing made to passengers trying to get to JFK.

“With more than 4,000 passen-gers affected, the teams ended up making about 2,000 calls to ensure passengers were kept up-dated,” says Worldwide Reserva-tions & Ticketing Manager Mary Chan.

“They assisted with changes to travel plans and help to make protection arrangements,” she added.

Mary says that a lot of operations decisions were made at odd hours with short notice, “but the teams simply took that as a challenge and delivered their usual excellent cus-tomer service,” she adds.

In the end, despite the large scale disruption, Tom says he has not heard of a single complaint from passengers.

“So many of the US and Head Office staff played a role in this major disruption and pulled to-gether magnificently to overcome the problems and expedite the re-covery,” he says.

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED: REV’s Ed Higgs roadtests the Long Bar martinis.

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have been most aggressive. Retiring the 747-400s from our fleet more quickly and replacing them with fuel efficient 777-300ERs will help us tremendously. The 777s are overall more than 20% more fuel efficient than the 747-400s. As we move into 2013 and take delivery of more 777-300ERs, we’ll see an even bigger benefit but the full benefit will not be realized until 2014.

The cost issue, however, encompasses more than just fuel. There is significant cost pressure all around us. We are see-ing increases in airport charges, overflight charges, catering charges, landing and parking charges, handling charges and passenger costs to name a few. So we must tackle our cost base where we can. Our Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu is leading these efforts.

Turning to the revenue side, cargo has been a huge challenge. Not just in 2012, but for most of 2011 as well.

Cargo has always been important to CX. In good years, cargo can be almost 30% of our total revenue although the result for 2012 will be well below that. 2010 was a boom year for cargo, but a weaker world economy changed all that and not for the better.

Cargo volumes track the health of the world economy – a weak economy means lower cargo demand. Faced with this situ-ation in 2012, we have cancelled freighter

More cost-cutting measures introduced to preserve cash, boost revenue

flights and we have also parked some of our freighters. But cargo doesn’t only trav-el on freighters.

Invisible to most customers, but not to our bottom line, cargo also travels in the bellies of our passenger aircraft. Cargo volumes in our passenger aircraft year-to-date are below budget and overall cargo revenue this year is lower than 2011 by around 13%.

Inside our passenger cabins, loads have been good. Not as good as in 2010 when the load factor averaged 83.4% or even in 2011 when it was 80.4%, but certainly quite good at 80.2% through October. Still, you can see that we have a lost a little bit here.

While load factor is important, yield is equally important. Yield basically means average ticket prices. To understand this,

we have to talk about both premium traffic (First and Business Class) and Economy Class traffic.

This year, premium traffic has been soft also due to the world economic situation. Our top corporate customers in the finan-cial industry are travelling more than 15% less than they did the previous two years. As a result, load factors in the premium cabins are slightly below where they were in 2010 and 2011 and average fares are also lower.

In our Economy Class cabins, load fac-tors are also slightly down over where they were in 2011. But the real problem has been a decline in average ticket prices, which are below budget and below last year by about 4%.

Many airlines are facing similar challeng-es and thus the competition for passengers is even more intense than usual.

Put all that together – high fuel prices, cost pressure on all fronts, some less fuel efficient aircraft, lower cargo revenues, weaker premium revenues, lower average ticket prices in Economy Class due to com-petition – all at the same time and the result is a very challenging year.

We know that aviation has its ups and downs. We have lived through both ups and downs over the past five years. What is important now is that we continue to pull together as one team, that we continue to provide our passengers and shippers with great products and services so that they keep choosing to fly and to ship with us, and that we work hard to make Cathay Pa-cific more productive and more efficient.

As we have before, we will get through these difficult times and we will be well-posi-tioned to take advantage of the improvement in the world economy when it comes.

Recently, I was asked – with flights seem-ingly so full why did we lose money in the first half and are we doing better now? It’s a sensible question – one that I expect many of you wonder about as well – so I wanted to use this opportunity to share with everyone my answer.

In the simplest terms, there are cost and revenue factors which have combined to make 2012 a difficult year. Let me explain further.

On the cost side, the biggest issue is fuel. Fuel is our single largest cost.

We planned for fuel to be expensive this year, but it has been even more expensive than we anticipated. The actual cost of fuel into plane - because we have to pay more for aviation fuel than the cost of the crude oil you see reported in the newspaper – has exceeded budget by about 6%.

Now, 6% may not seem like much but, looking at all our flights together on an annual basis, if we had done nothing, this higher fuel price would have meant our total fuel bill this year would have ex-ceeded the high budget we had planned by HK$2.5 billion!

The increase in the price of fuel since 2010 has had a big impact on the operat-ing cost of our routes. On a 747-400 flight to London, fuel today represents 62.5% of the total cost of the flight. In 2010, when fuel was substantially lower, it represented only 47.9%. That is a big jump! Let me try to put that into perspective. Taken over a year, on that one flight pair alone, the fuel bill will have increased by HK$110 million – again, on just this one flight pair.

To directly address the fuel situation, we have limited options. We can and do hedge, but hedging is not a miracle solu-tion, particularly when fuel prices have been stubbornly high for so long. Hedging is like an insurance policy – which like ev-ery other insurance policy costs money to buy – and so it offers some protection, but it doesn’t remove all of the risk.

We can try to raise ticket prices, but this is extremely difficult to do in the current weak economic environment.

We are allowed to collect fuel surcharg-es, but these require regulatory approval and help us recover only about 50% of the extra fuel cost we pay. So this also helps, but cannot fill the gap.

Finally, we can take steps to reduce fuel consumption and this is where we

“Compared to the same time last year, we are a bigger airline with more staff, more passengers and more assets – yet our revenues are in decline. That’s obviously not a sustainable situation, especially in a continued high-fuel-price environment.

“We cannot allow costs to rise faster than capacity or revenue, so we must look very carefully at how to do things more efficiently and more economically,” he said.

In a memo to department heads, the COO stressed that more needs to be done on the cost side.

“If you have had any doubts on the need

to contain costs, let me lay those to rest here and now. This is proving to be an extremely difficult year,” he wrote.

He told the senior management team that a number of “difficult, but necessary” decisions had been made, including:

Not holding the management conference this yearFurther restrictions on duty travel in place, with a recommendation for “minimum or no cost” to the company Not using company funds for festive gatherings

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Entertainment expenditure reduced to a bare minimum, even if already budgetedStricter enforcement of the current headcount freeze

“It is never pleasant to have to resort to such restrictive measures, but they reflect the negative operating climate in which we find ourselves,” Ivan said.

He urged the team to look for new sources of revenue and ways to further manage costs that don’t impact safety or our customer proposition.

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With the end of 2012 fast approaching, Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu has called on the team to push to reduce costs further as business continues to stall.

Despite a small pick-up in the cargo market, driven by shipments of high-tech products out of the Mainland, the overall situation is still worrying, Ivan told staff in the Friday Telex.

“The cost-management initiatives we announced back in May have been making a positive impact. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much improvement in the underlying business trends,” he said.

Cargo site gets a liftImproved interface and a better user experience adds to appealExtensive input from the market was incorporated into the design and structure of the new Cathay Pacific Cargo website which relaunched on 4 November.

Cargo Distribution Manager Clera Lam says: “We have been working on the entire project for the past 26 months and the brief was quite sim-ply to rebuild the whole site, from content and functionality to layout and design.

“We particularly looked at the user experience. The former site was very operation oriented with the ‘track and trace’ and ‘availability’ areas getting the highest hit rates at more than 80%,” she adds.

“The new layout pulls the focus to the centre of the page with new icons and more images providing a more visually pleasing look. We also wanted the site be more of a marketing tool so more information about cargo products such as Phar-maLIFT are now easily accessible on the landing page,” Clera says.

Based on input from users, a ‘check loadability’ section has been

200 – and still going strong!The November CX World cele-brates a milestone for the publica-tion – 200 issues of keeping staff and friends of Cathay Pacific up to date with everything happening in the airline.

CX World started out as a bi-weekly publication, taking over from The Weekly on 3 April 1998.

The name was chosen because “we’ll bring you news and informa-tion about every aspect of Cathay Pacific’s world” – and that still holds true today.

Fourteen years ago CX was a smaller but fast-changing airline,

Joint pledge to cut building emissionsCathay Pacific has joined 16 other leading Hong Kong compa-nies in a pledge to reduce carbon emissions in their buildings.

An initiative of the Business Environment Council (BEC) and Climate Change Business Forum (CCBF), the pledge requires companies to annually publish progress against reduction tar-gets in their CSR or related reports. Head of Environmental Af-fairs Mark Watson represented CX at a signing event held on 25 October.

“We have been running energy-saving initiatives such as au-tomatic lighting, air-conditioning control systems, and motion sensors in conference rooms at Cathay City,” says Building & Facilities Manager Jerry Tam.

“We have also been trialling different products for special and general lighting in the Flight Training Centre and offices, which can help reduce electricity consumption by 423,400 kWh per year upon implementation,” he adds.

A detailed energy audit is also in progress, the findings of which will feed into the energy-efficiency improvement programme.

SITE SENSE: Cargo’s Clera Lam, Stephen Ip and Daniel Chan highlight the new design features and functionality of the site.

Premium Economyrevenue on the riseRevenue from the Premium Economy cabin has grown steadily since its introduction on selected Cathay Pacific flights in April this year.

The Premium Economy product has been progressively introduced on Southwest Pacific, North America and Europe flights since its launch.

“London is the network’s star performer with regards to Premium Economy sales, with recent load factors up to 80%,” says Revenue & Route Planning Manager Manuel Tsang.

“Frankfurt is performing the best out of the continental Europe routes. There is also healthy demand for Premium Economy travel to and from Los Angeles,” he adds.

Pickup in India, the Middle East and South Africa is comparatively slow as Premium Economy is still a new product in these markets.

However the Revenue Department anticipates an increase in bookings as the rollout continues across those routes.

The team is looking forward to a buoyant demand for Premium Economy travel before the Christmas peak.

“Business looks promising on ultra long-haul routes such as London, the United States and Canada, where we have advance load factors above 40% in the beginning of November.

“Australia routes are also expected to be busy,” Manuel adds.

Cathay Pacific will have 48 aircraft installed with the new product by the end of this year, and 87 by the end of 2013.

added, allowing customers to see whether their cargo can be loaded onto a particular aircraft.

“They simply input the dimen-sions and select the aircraft type, so it’s a very user-friendly tool,” Clera says.

“We also included an e-rate in the members-only area which allows the individual customer to access the rate on offer for their particular company. CX is the one of the first airlines in the industry to offer this feature,” she adds.

Assistant Manager Cargo Distri-bution Daniel Chan says the over-all idea was to enhance the site to make it more user friendly.

“For instance, the highly utilised ‘track and trace’ area received spe-cial attention. The shipment move-ment information is very compre-hensive and shipment location can be easily identified.

“The content can also be emailed directly from the website which al-lows cargo agents to forward that information easily and quickly to their customers,” he says.

TAKING THE PLEDGE: CX’s Mark Watson (front row, fourth left) joins other signers.

and all the latest developments were documented in Issue 1 (be-low right).

The second daily flight to Los Angeles was splashed on the front page along with details of the airline’s new IT system, GalaCXy.

A whole page was documented to the latest CLK trial with CX’s move to its new home at Hong Kong International Airport just four months away.

On the lighter side, pictures from department spring dinners fea-tured everything from a bunch of engineers doing a striptease – not

a pretty sight! – to directors show-ing off a wide variety of skills.

CX World became a monthly publication in January but its focus remained the same – document-ing the devel-opments, the highs and lows, and the ever-chang-ing face of Hong Kong’s home air-line.

Win a hotel stay with CX Cargo!To celebrate the launch of the new Cathaypacificcargo.com website, the Cargo team and CX World are holding a special lucky draw.

The first prize winner will receive a two-night stay in a superior room for two with daily breakfasts at Hong Kong’s Regal Airport Hotel. The second prize winner will receive two-nights’ accommodation at the Headland Hotel.

To enter, answer the following question: How many different cargo products (eg PharmaLIFT) can be found on the new website?

Send your answer in an email with the subject line “Cargo website” toCCD#SCT by noon on Friday 21 December.

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Very special delivery from Cebu to RomeCathay Pacific had special cabin baggage onboard on 17 October when the image of Blessed Pedro Calungsod flew from Cebu to Rome, via Hong Kong, for a canonisation ceremony.

Thousands lined the streets as the three-foot high image was taken from Cebu’s cathedral to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. CX staff also had a chance to view and touch the image to share the blessing before it was carefully packed in a case for transport.

The image travelled in the passenger section next to the image’s official custodian, Father Charles Jayme (inset).

Manager Cebu Grace Ho says: “It was an honour for CX to support this significant event. It took great teamwork not just within the Cebu team but across different departments in the CX network to ensure the image was safely secured inside the cabin for the journey to Rome.”

NZ deal to deliver customer benefitsA ground-breaking strategic agreement with Air New Zealand is set to deliver a wide range of benefits for consumers, ranging from more routing choices and better-coor-dinated flight schedules to increased oppor-tunities to “earn and burn”.

The new arrangement was announced on 5 November and Chief Executive John Slosar said it will “open up a vast range of potential opportunities for the two airlines to maximise synergies and better meet cus-tomers’ needs”.

The key element of the agreement, which will become effective from 31 January next year, will be a code-sharing arrangement on CX and NZ services between New

Top spot for Inflight Sales

More awards for airlineJust as CX World went to press, Cathay Pacific heard that it had won two honours in the 2012 Business Traveller China Awards – Best Airline in the World and Best Airline First Class. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Shanghai on 15 November.

“These latest awards for our airline are very meaningful because they were voted for by the travelling public, and are a real tribute to the dedication and professionalism of our whole team,” said Chief Executive John Slosar.

STOP PRESS

Strategic agreement with Kiwi carrier on HK-Auckland route

Zealand and Hong Kong. The flight schedules of the two airlines will

be better aligned in order to increase con-nection opportunities out of both Hong Kong and Auckland.

Consumers will see a wider choice of fares between the gateway cities of Auckland/Hong Kong, while top-tier members from Air New Zealand’s Airpoints and the Marco Polo Club will enjoy reciprocal benefits when trav-

elling on code-share flights. The strategic agreement does not extend

to the airlines’ cargo businesses. In terms of the impact on CX’s New

Zealand team, the airline says that the ar-rangement “demonstrates our commitment to AKL and the team is encouraged to fully leverage on this new opportunity and capi-talise on it”.

In response to questions about partner-ing with a Star Alliance carrier, CX stresses that “oneworld encourages flexibility for members to pursue bilateral relationships with carriers beyond alliance members” and that there is no change in the airline’s commitment to oneworld.

Cathay Pacific was named Best Inflight Retailer of the Year at the 28th Frontier Awards held on 24 October in Cannes.

This is the third time the airline has won the top honour, previously winning in 2010 and 2008.

Inflight Sales Operations Manager Jessica Wan represented CX at the event.

She says innovation in the sector is required as competition grows and economic uncertainty means passengers spend less than before.

“Our strategic partner ISG has formed a dedicated product innovation team to look for the finest and most popular brands around the world – for instance, in spring

we’ll welcome Qeelin and Giorgio Armani beauty products onboard,” she says.

“The home delivery service expanded in July to cover more regional destinations, and we continue to groom our Elite Sales Force, ensuring they are well equipped with product knowledge and selling techniques, and suitably rewarded,” Jessica adds.

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Send us your feedbackWe welcome feedback from anyone in the CX network on any issue affecting the airline or the industry. Please email your letters to CCD#SCT. Not all letters will be published but those that are will be edited for length and to comply with the CX World style.

Kong, is there any way that a col-lection bin can be placed in Cathay City so that staff can join in the re-cycling effort?

I personally have many bottles at

It was great to see the story in CX World about the effort being taken to recycle inflight bottles.

I wonder, given the lack of glass recycling for the public in Hong

Throughout Hur-ricane Sandy, Reservations staff in Hong Kong and North America received many written and ver-bal compliments for their service recovery efforts. Here are some examples:

“Owing to my husband’s medical condition, I was prepared to take the risk of letting him fly home alone if a seat was available earlier than our confirmed flight on 4 November.

A CX staff called with the good news that all of us could fly home together on 1 November. We were ecstatic.

Thank you so much – this is one of the many reasons why we always fly Cathay Pacific.”

“Your staff all worked so hard to accommo-date passengers, taking the time to reach out to customers and always try-ing to find the best flight schedule for passengers. And best of all not charg-ing a change fee!”

“The staff we spoke to was absolutely amazing to deal with. She was so helpful, so knowledgeable and so kind.

Not sure what I would have done if I was travel-ling on a carrier other than Cathay Pacific.”

“The CX staff are very ex-perienced and helpful.

I was so upset due to the weather situation in New York and the person I spoke to made me feel much better in a difficult situation.

Every time I call in I find your staff so helpful and well trained.”

“Cathay Pacific han-dled this trying situation wonderfully… you are the best airline!”

New life given to glass bottles

Star letter prizeThe winner of the CX World Star Letter wins a pair of decidedly quirky Quarkie earphones from the UK.

Quarkie earphones were created by a British and Asian design team of music lovers, marrying striking sound with eye-catching designs.

This month’s winner wins a pair of striking Chameleon Eye phones featuring British studio-monitor sound quality.

Find Quarkie at Sogo, HMV, CD Warehouse and other outlets in Hong Kong.

Star letter

IMT’s goal is to provide a secure working PC/laptop environment with minimal service disruption to the CX business units. In the com-ing months more security features will be deployed as part of the IMT Security Strategy to reduce risk and threats to the workplace.

ExtendingWi-Fi reachI was wondering why it is possible to have Wi-Fi access on The Street at Cathay City and in meeting rooms as well as in the Headland Hotel, but not in the office areas?

These days with so many staff us-ing iPads and laptops to work with, wouldn’t it be more convenient to provide Wi-Fi in the office rather than force them to go down to The Street?

David McIntyreCCD

Are there any plans to redesign the cockpit crew uniforms for CX/KA in the future?

Name withheld

Dave Lomax, Manager Basing Companies, replies: Currently, an exercise is underway to review the contract for the supply of pilot uni-forms.

There is no plan to change the design of the CX cockpit crew uni-form at the moment; this is simply a review of the supplier of the uniforms and the quality of the production pro-cess and end result.

While we will not rule out the pos-sibility of reviewing the style and fab-ric of the uniform in the future, this is not the intent at present. Jenny Ho, Head KA Uniform Project, replies: The scope of the Dragonair new uniform project only covers ground staff and cabin crew and there are no plans to change the cockpit crew uniform.

Booting out Why is it that the CX desktop PCs are set to boot from external media?

Almost all security experts sug-gest that switching off this autoboot option is the most basic, frontline step that an owner can take to avoid virus infection.

It’s very easy to forget and leave a memory stick or a CD in a machine at power-off.

Under IMT’s current settings the PC will then attempt to boot from whatever executable programmes it can find on that media.

Maybe other protections will do their best to mitigate that threat – but it’s still a danger and there’s no apparent benefit from leaving this “door” open.

Name withheld

James Lockett, Infrastructure Support Manager, replies: Steps are being taken to minimise security threats to CX/KA assets including PCs and laptops.

In Hong Kong, IMT has deployed USB Management Tool that will dis-able .exe (executable programs) to run from USB media. This is also be-ing extended to outports.

Over a two month period, 8,832 out of 9,929 USB Management Tools have been deployed.

Sam Kynaston, Head of IM, Cor-porate & Back Office, replies: Roll-ing out Wi-Fi to more office areas in Cathay City and overseas ports has been included in the plan of the overall IT infrastructure renewal pro-gramme.

However, due to the adverse eco-nomic situation, the rollout has been on hold.

We will pursue such a rollout as soon as funding allows in conjunc-tion with other key components of our core network infrastructure.

A new look for cockpit crew? I see from CX World, that Dragonair staff are getting new uniforms. How-ever, as with Cathay Pacific’s uniform project, it looks as if the cockpit crew uniforms have not been included in the project.

Clearly it would be cheaper for the company to have uniforms rede-signed by the same person and then made at the same time.

As we are all supposed to be part of the same team, can I ask why the cockpit crew were not included in the uniform redesign?

home that I don’t want to throw in the rubbish bin as I know they will end up in the landfill. A place to re-cycle them would be welcome!

Please consider adding this ser-vice as it would be a nice comple-ment to our current battery, CD’s, paper and other recycling bin.

Name withheld

Evelyn Chan, Environmental Projects Manager, replies: Glass is not very widely recycled in Hong Kong at the moment, and only a handful of facilities handle this.

We have been exploring this idea for a while now, and with the help of the Property & Services De-partment, a glass bottle collection point has been set up in Cathay City at the entrance of The Galley near the recycling areas for batter-ies and CD cases.

For safety reasons, a number of shallow containers will be provided and we will be monitoring this pro-cess in the coming months.

These containers will then be delivered to the Headland Hotel, where they will join the glasses and bottles collected from the hotel, Da-kota and the restaurants, and be sent off to the contractor.

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Even in the present volatile econom-ic climate, CX and KA are in the right part of the world, with passenger traffic to and from China key to the future growth of the Group, accord-ing to CX Chief Executive and KA Chairman John Slosar.

John was speaking at a staff fo-rum held on 22 October at Drago-nair House.

He was joined by Dragonir CEO Patrick Yeung, Manager Airline Planning Vickie Yue and General Manager HKIA Paul Loo in updating staff on the Group’s development.

“Ultimately, the most important thing for CX and KA is to get the most out of their combined networks,” said John in his opening remarks.

“I don’t think there’s any other air-

Business focus at staff forum On the move

While excited about his new post and responsibilities as Manager Sanya, Kevin Gao said he will definitely miss Changsha, where he began his career with KA more than 12 years ago.

Kevin was born and brought up in Changsha, and joined KA right after graduating from Hu-nan University in 2000.

“I was attracted to work for the airline because of its great repu-tation. My first international flight was with KA when I flew to Hong Kong in 1996,” says Kevin.

Kevin started his career at KA as a Customer Services Officer and rose through the ranks to become Changsha’s Airport Ser-vices Manager.

“My experience in Changsha allowed me to have a better un-derstanding of the different op-erations in the company.

“Working with the Dragonair team and the local ground han-dling agent allowed me to devel-op communication and manage-ment skills, which I hope to put to

Yangon route opens up myriad possibilitiesManager Manuel Tsang.

The Southeast Asia Games, which will be held in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw in 2013, is expected to cause a spike in government and leisure travel. The 2014 ASEAN Summit, which will be chaired by Myanmar, is also anticipated to help sales.

Labour traffic from Yangon bound for Southeast Asia, Taipei and the Middle East will likely be another key market.

Advanced bookings for Yangon in Janu-ary and February are slowly picking up. Hong Kong ticket sales are anticipated to account for 75% of January bookings, while offline sales in Europe and North America will contribute the remaining 25%.

Dragonair’s newly announced service to Yangon is exciting news for those who have always wanted to visit Myanmar.

Starting 9 January, Dragonair will operate four flights a week to Myanmar’s largest city using an Airbus A321 aircraft.

Dragonair joins a host of airlines that have shown interest in Myanmar after sweeping socio-political changes in the country last year, including the abolition of a five-decade tourism boycott.

It is widely believed that the opening up of the country will attract investors and tourism to Yangon, whose economy and infrastruc-ture has been lagging behind other major Southeast Asian cities.

The new Dragonair service capitalises on the anticipated surge of inbound visitors in the years to come.

“Travel demand for Yangon from Hong Kong will likely come from leisure travellers, who are drawn to Yangon’s rich historical and religious background. We also expect business traffic as Hong Kong is a key market of exported Myanmese stones and jade,” says Route and Revenue Planning

line in the world that has the breadth of network that we have, and the abil-ity to connect passengers between China and the rest of the world – at the same time with our service and style,” he added.

John highlighted the two airlines’ premium products and services as the unique selling point over Main-land carriers.

Patrick thanked the Dragonair team for their hard work in a year of unprecedented growth. “Our front- line staff, as well as the teams sup-porting our operations, have done a lot to ensure not only excellent service delivery and safety, but also

the generation of value across the Group,” he said.

Staff also received an update on the performances of the six new destinations opened or resumed since April.

“The results are varied. Chiang Mai is the star performer, Xi’an is performing reasonably well and Taichung and Jeju are showing im-provement,” Vickie said.

“Guilin, a seasonal destination, is doing well, but Clark has been un-derperforming,” she added.

Paul updated the team on the situ-ation at Hong Kong airport, pointing out that air traffic is near saturation and parking bays are fully occupied.

“The team also battled a historic number of weather disruptions this year, particularly typhoons that se-riously affected flights in and out of HKIA,” he said.

“Solutions have included im-proving coordination with air traffic control and apron control, and the implementation of more self-service channels, such as online check-in and mobile boarding passes.”

good use in Sanya,” says Kevin. “I will definitely miss my family,

colleagues and friends in Chang-sha. I grew up in there and like the warmth of the people – and I will miss Hunan food too!” he adds.

Kevin recommends those visit-ing his hometown to try local deli-cacies such as the double pepper fish head and kouwei shrimp.

Top scenic spots Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang County are also not to be missed, Kevin adds.

Looking ahead, Kevin is confi-dent that he and his new team will continue to build the KA brand that attracted him so long ago.

“My motto is to be passionate about the job, focus on communi-cation, and carry out one’s duties with an open mind,” he says.

FROM THE TOP: John Slosar (above) and Patrick Yeung (left) both took questions from Dragonair staff during the forum.

Keeping our coastcleanAround 70 staff and family members joined Director Service Delivery Philippe de Gentile-Wil-liams and Director Corporate Affairs Chitty Cheung on 20 Oc-tober to take part in the Coastal Cleanup Campaign.

They cleared away trash and debris from the Tong Fuk rocky beach on Lantau Island, leaving it in close to pristine condition.

The group cleared 50 bags of rubbish – equivalent of 500 kilograms – from the site.

Items found include stray piec-es of polystyrene foam, broken flip flops, plastic bottles, mangled wire netting and even a flag.

CX has been taking part in this event since 2009 and during this time more than 2,800 kilograms of debris has been collected.

“This was a great effort by our staff volunteers and I thank them all for giving up their free time to take part,” Chitty says.

1. ‘Hidden Smile’, Flight Attendant Ari Kusumawardana.Judge’s comment: “Nice lighting with great composition. Captures the little boy’s shyness in his eyes.”

2. ‘Happy Kids in Mongolia’, Flight Attendant Carol Kwok. Judge’s comment: “Special moment that captures the essence of kids being kids.”

3. ‘Hey...’, HKIA Supervisor Joe Li.Judge’s comment: “Good eye. Captures a cute moment from a different angle.”

Hundreds of photos from around the network flooded in when the CX World Photo Competition launched in August. A total of 1,397 images were received over the one-month contest period for the

two categories of People and Places. It was then over to the judging panel of CCD photographer David McIntyre,

CX Camera Club organiser Samuel Lo, one of Hong Kong’s premier wedding photographers and ex-CX staff Rosa Tseng, and Yung’s Harmony Photography owner

and CX staff Karen Yung – to provide a shortlist of 10 photos in each category. Staff were then asked to vote for their favourite with more than 1,000 individual votes being

cast over the two-week period. The winner in the People category received more than 30% of the votes, while the Places winner received just over 28% of the votes cast.

Displayed here are the final winning photos as well as the other images which made the shortlist. Thank you for your participation!

CX World Photo Com

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1. ‘Buffalo on the Move’, Loyalty Marketing & Corporate Sales Support Officer Shirin Koh.Judge’s comment: “Captures a nostalgic experience and it’s been presented like a lovely Chinese Ink painting. A stunning magical moment!”

2. ‘Magnificent Sculpture - Hani Terraces’, Cabin Crew Operations Supervisor Carmen Pang.Judge’s comment: “Striking image. Creative way to show the sunset.”

3. ‘Antelope Canyon’, Senior First Officer Paul Adams.Judge’s comment: “Strong framing and composition helps the colours really stand out.”

CX World will not be responsible for any claims or complaints against infringements of rights ordamages from third parties relating to entries.

Exercise puts CARE team to the testAbout 50 members of the CARE Team took part in a Family Assis-tance Centre (FAC) exercise organ-ised by Airport Authority Hong Kong and held at the Regal Airport Hotel.

These bi-annual exercises help test the operation of the FAC and al-low care teams from airlines to take part in the whole process, from fam-ily registration to the completion of reunion.

Some 300 volunteers played the role of passengers and family mem-bers, and external agencies such as the Red Cross were also activated.

Crisis Response Manager Carrie Shiu says the chance to practice the skills they learnt in the classroom is useful for the CARE Team mem-bers.

“Specifically, they use the skills of handling distressed passengers, undergo the process of reconcilia-tion, and get to work with different authorities. They also learn how to do manual reconciliation without Einstein [CX’s crisis communica-tions system] and manage the vari-ous FAC areas,” she says.

While a proper wash-up will be held later, Carrie says she made several observations during the ex-ercise including the need to improve the overall coordination and signage at the hotel.

“The CARE Team members may not be able to memorise the hotel setup and where all the meeting rooms are. During an exercise, we have time for a pre-exercise brief-ing and a walk through, but in re-ality they might be deployed to an outport where they would need to get acclimatised in a hurry,” Carrie says.

“That said, I would prefer the CARE team concentrate on provid-ing humanitarian assistance and be patient with things they have limited information on, or things that they have to learn right away such as the logistic arrangements,” she adds.

Carrie says more than 80% of the reunion cases were successfully carried out.

“As this was done manually in less than three hours it was a very good result,” she says.CX World would like to thank the

following companies for their gen-erous prize sponsorship:

- Cathay Pacific Holidays - The Upper House- Rosa & Daniel Photography- Intercontinental Shanghai Puxi

First real test beginsTeams begin full-scale trial of operations as opening date gets ever closerThe construction is complete, the systems are installed – and now the first real test of the Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal has begun.

On 29 October, the first of three operation trials commenced in the facility, with all the systems in opera-tion and ULDs – the unit load devic-es that carry cargo – moving around the building for the first time.

The terminal will open in three stages and operation trials, each lasting approximately two months, will take place before the launch of each stage.

“The trials will ensure we’re ready at every stage,” says Stephen Luk, Head of Operations & Services with Cathay Pacific Services Ltd (CPSL).

“We need to test that all the right procedures are in place and assess our level of confidence before letting the management team know that we’re ready to go.”

The first stage will focus on the shipment of valuables, transit civil mail and interface transfers – that is, freight with tight connections be-tween aircraft.

Some 200 staff from CPSL and other stakeholders – including CX Cargo, HAS, government depart-ments such as Customs & Excise and Agriculture, Fisheries and Con-servation, and sub-contractors – are participating in the trial, which runs every Monday, Wednesday and Fri-day through to late December.

“It took us more than a year to de-velop the trial plan and we are ask-ing every person taking part to follow a specific script,” says Stephen.

“We’re doing a full test of the flow and procedures, and after each day of the trial we conduct a full assess-ment of how it went. The findings are fed back to the working team so we can fine-tune things for the next day of the trial.”

Stephen says that a big emphasis is being placed on safety through-out the trial.

“We have new staff, new handling procedures and new technologies employed in the terminal, so safety is paramount,” he says.

The early stages of the trial have been going according to plan and Stephen says the team has been encouraged by the progress.

“It’s a challenging and exciting event for all of us. There’s a lot to understand and a lot to follow up, but we are on track so far,” Stephen says.

Boneyard airfield tests flying skillsThe traditional destination for retiring aircraft has been Victorville in the United States, but the latest Boeing 747-400 passenger aircraft to leave the fleet have gone to Kemble Airfield in the UK .This has posed a challenge to pilots as the visual approach is carried out on a very short runway.

The latest 747-400 to retire departed Hong Kong on 22 October following the salvage of its cabin equipment.

At the controls of B-HOX was Captain Peter Lees and he was joined in the cockpit by Senior First Officers Paul Aubert and Ben Haigh-Smith and Second Officer James Robinson.

Once the decision had been made to phase out the aircraft and it became clear there was no market for either selling or leasing instead, a procurement exercise was launched by the Aircraft Trading team to find an agent that could extract the maximum value from the breakdown, marketing and sale of the salvaged spare parts.

“GA Telesis were chosen as they have a strong reputation and track record in the business of parting out and marketing aircraft spare parts and offered the best solution for extracting maximum value,” says Manager Aircraft Projects Robert Taylor.

“Kemble in fact, is only one of five facilities used by GA Telesis.

They also have facilities in the US, which include Victorville, and future aircraft retirements may go there depending upon capacity and where the demand is for the inventory at the time,” Robert adds.

After a short delay due to bad weather over Kemble, Captain Lees successfully landed the aircraft on 25 October on an airfield he last saw in the 1980s.

“I have landed in Kemble before when I was in the Royal Air Force, but the last time I landed there was in 1986 and that was in a Hawk not a 747!,” he says.

“The challenge posed by Kemble is that not only are there no approach aids, there is also no approach lighting – both things that

we are used to having in normal day-to-day operations. Additionally, there’s no air traffic control as such, only a flight information service,” Captain Lees adds.

B-HOX is the third 747-400 to be

retired from the fleet early as part of the airline’s efforts to employ more fuel-efficient aircraft on long-haul routes.

Six more of the aircraft will be retired in 2013.

1. The Stage 1 Operation Trial com-menced in October with staff and contractors working closely together to simulate the operations.2. The terminal is equipped with ex-tensive Wi-Fi services to facilitate the use of handheld devices.3. The first piece of trial cargo gets moving in the materials handling system. 4. Stakeholders and business part-ners were also involved in the trial.5. The Terminal Control Centre (TCC) monitors and governs all activities on the ground.

RETIREMENT READY: B-HOX’s crew in Hong Kong before the aircraft’s final flight.

Spend a day with CX staffBehind-the-scenes videos show life in the air and on the ground Hundreds of CX Facebook fans had the chance to go behind the scenes of the lives of three CX staff through a series of People and Service videos in October.

The first video, which launched online on 9 October, was with Flight Attendant Grace Hui (pictured above left) as she prepared to fly from Hong Kong to Sydney. The second video focused on Airport Service Leader Sammy Yeung, while the third showed a typical day in the life of Senior First Officer Richard Clausen (pictured above

right). To increase engagement, there

were lucky draws with CX-branded items as prize or fans could leave a question for the staff with the most interesting ones receiving a reply.

“The filming was like a reality show and I had to remember that every single thing I said was being recorded,” Grace says.

“I have been flying for four years now and flying has become a normal activity. The video brought me back to the feeling I had when I first started flying and everything

For the ninth consecutive year, Asia Miles will be the logistics sponsor of the annual Oxfam Trailwalker. Once again, several staff will be taking part, and some are pictured above.

Asia Miles is donating one million miles as a fundraising prize, with teams who raise more than HK$30,000 entering the draw.

Asia Miles is also supporting six teams this year including Pari Passu, captained by Employee Services Manager Bob Nipperess (far right), who will be competing in his 13th trailwalker event.

The teams will take on the challenge of the 100-kilometre MacLehose Trail from Pak Tam Chung to Yuen Long from 16-18 November to raise funds for Oxfam’s charitable projects. More in the December CX World.

Teams gear up for Oxfam Trailwalker

New status board at HKIAA new electronic flight status board has been installed be-hind the staff standby counter at HKIA, allowing staff travellers to view their flight number, des-tination, the acceptance status for three classes and departure times.

The board also features reporting times so staff know when to go back to the counter. It also tells them the area where they can check in directly if the flights are open.

was so new, so I tried my best to explain as much as I could. It was actually like bringing my friends and family to work for a day!” she adds.

Richards says he was amazed at how a full day of video shooting was able to be condensed into a short five-minute clip.

“I enjoyed meeting the filming crew and seeing behind the scenes of their own operation,” Richard says, adding he wished filming on the flight deck had been allowed, but regulations unfortunately do

not permit it.The videos

attracted hundreds of comments from fans with several saying it gave them a greater appreciation for what CX staff do. They also asked many questions ranging from how the crew stay awake on overnight flights to whether there is time to enjoy the view.

“There were some really interesting questions. My favourite would have to be the one about the decision on who answers a passenger’s call light and whether it’s always the most junior crew. It made me realise how our passengers pay attention to details like this,” Grace says.

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The Colombo team took part in a CSR project on 1 August, by visiting the Vajira Sri Children’s Development Centre in Pitakotte.

The centre provides both refuge and education for more than 150 disadvantaged children between the ages of two and 18.

The staff, including those who were on duty at the airport the previous night, volunteered to devote their mid-week Poya Day holiday to upgrading the dormitory facilities for the boys aged 16-18.

The day’s work included colour washing the dormitory and cupboards and fixing the lighting system to give the area a refreshed look and feel.

The team also had snacks for the children, who put on a performance to celebrate the visit. The day ended with a cricket match.

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Trying out Premium EconomySince 1 September, pas-sengers have been able to fly in Premium Economy Class from Frankfurt to Hong Kong, and staff from the Frankfurt Town Office had a chance to sample the new product for themselves during an airport visit.

The staff walked around the cabin trying out all the

different features, noting the wider seat and the extra legroom. As there are several staff on the team who are taller than

1.80m, the extra space and legroom came in very handy for them.

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On a cold autumn morning, the CX team in Amsterdam said goodbye to the last pas-senger flight to the city oper-ated by the Boeing 747-400.

The day also marked exactly 26 years of service by the 747. The final flight carried 379 pas-sengers from Hong Kong.

An Airbus 340-300 will oper-ate the Hong Kong-Amsterdam route until the Boeing 777-300 takes over later in the year.

Painting smiles in Colombo

Celebrating launch of new products on Delhi routeThe India team held a press briefing for local media on 17 October to announce the introduction of the airline’s award-winning new Business Class cabin and its new Premium Economy Class cabin on the Delhi route.

From 29 October, Cathay Pacific aircraft operating between Hong Kong and Delhi have been featuring a three-class configuration – new Business Class, Premium Economy Class and the new long-haul Economy Class seats.

General Manager South Asia, Middle East & Africa Tom Wright was joined by Area Sales Manager – North India Abhijit Abhyankar and Regional Sales & Marketing Manager – South Asia Rakesh Raicar to meet the press.

Selected journalists from major newspapers such as the Asian Age and travel trade titles including Trav Talk and Aviation Times attended the event to learn more about the new products.

Direct sales on a growth spurt in the Philippines

The India team held a special welcome event for Charlie Stewart-Cox and Samantha Horn on 21 September.

Charlie will shortly be taking over from Tom Wright as General Manager South Asia, Middle East & Africa, with Samantha as his assistant.

The evening began with Tom giving a speech followed by few words from Charlie and Samantha. Financial

Services Officers Shobha Gowda and Nita Shah performed a traditional Indian welcome ceremony and Samantha and Charlie both received flower garlands.

Charlie wore a turban and a dupatta to perform a short Bollywood-style dance, with Customer Sales Agent Tina Naidu and Reservation Sales Agent Claudia Dsouza assisting him with the steps.

Traditional welcome for new faces

747 farewell

REAPING REWARDS: An increased sales focus has helped the Philippines team boost revenues.

2012 has been a rewarding year for the Philippines Sales, Marketing and Direct Sales teams.

“Around three to four years ago, the Direct Sales team focused mainly on servicing passengers and taking new bookings as well as rebooking existing ones, but less on the selling,” says Direct Sales Man-ager Marnic Adriano.

But when the focus changed to emphasise more of a sales perspective, the direct sales revenue started to improve.

In previous years, the Direct Sales team were more conscious of the number of calls answered per hour.

“But since last year, each person was given a sales target and we also started a recognition programme for staff who were able close group bookings from telephone sales. These proved to be very effective as everyone’s mindset changed from plain servicing to sales generating,” Marnic says.

The CX/HSBC tieup in 2011 which offered CX/KA tickets for credit card spend, also boosted sales.

“To say it was a success is an understatement. It was dubbed the ‘promotion of the century’ in terms of the revenue generated as well as the exposure it gave the CX/KA brands.

“We reaped the rewards until well into 2012 and it also gave us the opportunity to practice our upselling skills by introducing our Premium Economy and Busi-ness Class to this market,” Marnic says.

The team also started to do callouts to prospec-tive direct corporate accounts including embassies, churches and manufacturing companies.

“From July to August, the team visited 10 compa-nies and presented the corporate proposition, with three already signing contracts,” he adds.

A “race” incentive was also implemented with the team taking part in a Pilipinas Grand PriCX staff cam-paign.

“The Grand PriCX is aimed at tapping into the selling skills of all Philippines-based staff wherein each staff would run a race and a driver would move forward by referring friends or relatives. The Grand PriCX will run for six months, with the top driver winning a grand prize,” says Marnic.

Marnic proudly says the days “when we just waited for passengers to call the reservations line” are over.

“One of the things that we instilled in the minds of all direct sales officers are the words proactive selling. Whether it is doing callouts, offering alternative routes, upselling or looking for other ways to sell. The bottom line is that we have to do things differently to grow revenue now while ensuring that service level targets are continuously surpassed,” he says.

Farewell Daniel and hello to BrianStaff from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia gath-ered to bid farewell to Country Manager UAE & Oman Daniel Cheung and welcome his successor, Brian Yuen.

Also present at the event were General Manager South Asia, Middle East and North Africa Tom Wright and his succes-sor Charlie Stewart-Cox.

Daniel was presented a dhow as a farewell memento to commemorate his time in the Middle East.

Business Class campaign blitzes London

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‘Liking’ the JATA tourism fair The Tokyo team participated in the JATA Tourism Forum & Travel Showcase 2012 from 21-23 September with giveaways, a lucky draw and Facebook fan activities.

The showcase is held annually by the Japan Association of Travel Agents and is the largest sightseeing event in Asia with a variety of exhibitors including travel agencies, foreign and domestic travel tourism bureaus and airlines.

The CX team offered giveaways including special ballpoint pens and pin badges to those who signed up for CX Specials.

The new subscribers went into a lucky draw to win Asia Miles, luxury hotel stays in Hong Kong or a voucher to try the collagen-rich set menu at T’ang Court at the Langham Hotel Hong Kong. Over the three days, more than 1,400 new subscribers were signed up.

The CX Japan Facebook page was also a highlight. Visitors who “liked” the page when they visited the booth were given an airplane key chain. More than 300 “likes” were recorded and the number of CX Japan Facebook fans was boosted to more than 10,000.

When CX105 touched down at Adelaide International Airport on 4 October, it was not only the 3,578th Cathay Pacific flight to arrive in the city; it also marked the 20th anniversary of flights to South Australia.

A crowd of almost 100 people gath-ered to celebrate Cathay Pacific’s two decades of flights into Adelaide includ-ing General Manager Southwest Pacific Dominic Perret, Adelaide Airport’s Vince

A 34-year journey is about to reach its final destination for Allan Hine, Cargo Manager Victoria, Tasmania & South Australia, who retires from CX in December after a long and rewarding career.

His roots in the business actually go back to 1961 when he joined freighter forwarder Thomas Meadows in the UK, working out of Heathrow. He migrated to Australia two years later, but his career path was already cemented.

“One whiff of the kerosene and I was hooked for life,” he smiles.

He eventually got back into the industry in 1967, working for New Zealand National Airways in Wellington and then for Trans Australia Airlines in Melbourne.

Later, he met Rex Swann, then CX Airport and Cargo Manager in Melbourne, who sold Allan the idea of working for the Hong Kong carrier.

“It sounded interesting, different to what I’d been doing, and I took to it like a duck to water,” Allan says.

When Allan joined in June 1978, CX had only been online to Melbourne for 18 months and there were just three Boeing 707 passenger flights a week to the city. A team of three staff handled every aspect of the whole operation, including cargo.

Things developed fast and in 1983 the Airport and Cargo functions were separated and Allan was made Cargo Manager. His focus was to further build the cargo operation out of MEL.

Life took another turn in 1990 when he got a call from Simon Heale from the Head Office Cargo team and found himself working as Manager Cargo Services at Kai Tak from July 1990 to December 1992 – a time when CX had only three or four freighters and the Cargo Services team numbered just 12 people.

After returning to Melbourne, Allan saw the nature of the industry beginning to change.

“It was becoming more mature and shippers were more willing to pay decent rates,” he says. “We began to see fewer perishables being moved and more specialised cargo – and CX has been able to capture a significant share of that business out of Melbourne.”

He is leaving behind a much bigger and more sophisticated cargo operation, and says the thing he’ll miss the most is the people. “I’ve been happy to go to work every day,” he says.

Allan will keep himself busy in retirement, travelling with his wife to places in Australia he hasn’t visited before, and indulging in a new passion, photography. “I did my first wedding recently and I’m pleased with the results!” he grins.

‘One whiff of the kerosene and I was hooked’

CARGO CRAZY: Allan Hine is hanging up his hat after 34 years.

Customers and business commuters alike celebrated the launch of the new Cathay Pacific Business Class cabin on the London to Hong Kong route at a three-day event.

Set against the spectacular backdrop of the iconic dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and offering panoramic views of London, the team invited people working in the area to experience the seat. Exclusive events were held for valued travel partners, Marco Polo Club members and media to soak up the new Business Class environment over a glass of champagne and canapés

The campaign was supported by an outdoor advertising campaign in key business sites throughout the Square Mile, including 12-sheet posters at Bank, St Paul’s and Mansion House and the landmark site at Bank Station above the Central Line escalator.

In addition, two transvision screens at Liverpool Street Station were also used along with 41 screens across 21 buildings in the nearby vicinity.

Scanlon and South Australian Tourism Commission’s Karyn Kent.

In 1992 the first flight was captained by South Australian Trevor Burgess, and another South Australian, Captain Ben Briggs, was at the controls on 4 October.

On 4 October 1992, CX commenced flights to Adelaide with a weekly service to Hong Kong. Since that time, flights have increased from one to

20 years celebrated in Adelaide

seven per week, steadily increasing the carriage of passengers and cargo.

Dominic also presented a 20-year long service coin to Airport Services Manager Karin Brady and a 15-year coin to Airport Services Officer Chris Stemper.

Moving precious air cargo around the world is something Cathay Pacific does well, so when called upon to ship Glorious: A Diamond Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II from London to Sydney, the airline rose to the occasion.

The large painting, measuring

262.3cm x 254.3cm, left London on 22 September, connecting with CX029 in Hong Kong to Sydney before being trucked to Canberra.

Pictured with the painting are Business Development Manager NSW and ACT Richard Jones and Cargo Manager, Australia Nigel Chynoweth.

Royal escort to Canberra

Cebu Mechanic Jorge Bartolabac

1. Earlier this year, you took part

in the International Ironman 70.3 race – what did you have to do? It started with a two kilometre swim, then a 90 kilometre bike ride and a 21 kilometre run in the hot sun.

2. How did you do? I finished in six hours and 33 minutes – not bad for a first time joiner!

3. How gruelling was the train-ing regime? I woke up at 5am and Monday, Wednesday and Friday were for swimming and running. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I cycled for four hours.

4. What was the most difficult part of training? The cycling, because I needed a lot of time and distance to do it properly.

5. How long was the training regime? You should do four to six months of training but I couldn’t do it all because of work.

6. What is your favourite disci-pline and why? The swimming. But it is also the most difficult of the three for me.

7. Why is the swimming por-tion so hard? It’s very technical and you need to learn how to glide on water. Cor-rect strokes are the most important thing.

8. How did you get into triath-lons? I did marathons and fun runs be-fore I decided that I could do more.

9.Would you encourage others to do triathlons? Yes, but remember that it’s an expensive sport because you need a good bike. And if you are a new-bie, you need a coach, especially for the swimming part.

10. What is your advice to new starters?Train hard, set goals, have a reason and an inspiration and strive hard. But make sure you enjoy yourself.

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When not in the air, Flight Purser Ruby Lee can generally be found gliding swift-ly over water as the wakeboard fanatic works on improving her skills.

Ruby, who holds a scuba-diving licence and used to own a jet ski, says she has always enjoyed water sports.

But her main focus is now on wake-boarding, which she started about seven years ago.

“It is just so cool!” Ruby grins. “I can still remember how euphoric I was the first time I managed to get up on the wakeboard on top of the water.”

Wakeboarding is a combination of water ski-ing, snowboarding and surfing, Ruby explains. As she began to improve, she decided to be-come more serious about the sport.

“I hired a private instructor and tried swapping some long-haul duties with colleagues to give me more time to practice in Hong Kong,” Ruby says.

“Certain tricks are extremely difficult and you need to practice them over and over again. Perhaps the reason I never get bored is because it’s so challenging.,” she adds.

In 2009, Ruby applied for nine months’ unpaid leave and went to Taiwan “to get a taste of how it’s like to be a full-time athlete”. She spent up to 12 hours a day wakeboarding including formal training, aux-iliary exercises and cleaning up the boat and other equipment.

Her arduous efforts have certainly paid off and she has become one of the most promising female members in the Hong Kong team. The difficult tricks such as the jump-up, turnaround and even somersaults have earned her medals over the years. This summer, she reached the final eight of the Asian/Australia Wakeboarding Championship, which is the best result attained by a Hong Kong athlete so far.

“Wakeboarding has given me a lot of satisfaction and sense of achievement. And I would like to thank the company and my colleagues who have been very generous in ensuring that my roster does not clash with important contests,” Ruby says.

United troops for WARRCX and KA presented a united front at the recent World Airline Road Race (WARR), held in Qingdao in October.

Staff from various departments, some joined by family and friends, flew to the coastal city for the event, held in a national park close to Qingdao.

As always, participants from airlines around the world flew in for the event, with around 300 taking part this

year. Beyond the race itself, highlights included

the famous T-shirt swap party, where airlines exchanged self-designed T-shirts with each other,

and the gala dinner after the race.KA CEO Patrick Yeung flew in to cheer on the Hong

Kong contingent and there was great local support from Manager Qingdao Sarita Chan.

Next year’s WARR will be hosted by South African Airways in Cape Town – visit www.worldairlineroadrace.org

FLYING HIGH: Ruby in action on the water. Below right: Ruby (centre) with her team mates in

Hong Kong.

YEARS ADD UP: Abacus Hong Kong GM Winnie Lau (first row, third from right) and her team celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the CX subsidiary.

HAPPY TOGETHER: The Swire Hotels-managed

EAST Beijing welcomed its first CX crew on 22

October. It is also the crew hotel for Dragonair.

PIT STOP: Manila’s Simon Miranda takes a rest at a crater lake during the Mt. Pinatubo 50km trail ultramarathon.

DOING THE MOBOT: The London Corporate Sales

Team ham it up at the Royal Parks Half Marathon.

After more than 38 years, Cabin Crew Line Manager – FP & FA Steven Tsang said goodbye to the company that he first joined as a cabin crew in the 1970s.

Steven joined CX in February 1974 and worked as cabin crew until 1990, when he joined the ground staff team and was ap-pointed Cabin Crew Performance Officer.

Steven has many happy memories of the many cabin crew wedding banquets, birthday parties and dinners for various crew ranks he has attended over the years, and looks back fondly on his time with the airline.

“It has been good to see a change in culture; things are more open, the management team is very approachable and there’s a harmonious working atmosphere inflight,” he said in a final inter-view with Cabin Crew Newsletter.

“When I first joined, I hoped that one day I would be able to be a part of this kind of change. It is one of my proudest achievements.

“My life has been greatly enriched by the kindness and encourage-ment so many of you have shown to me. I will always be grateful for the colleagues and many friends I have made along the way,” he added.

Steven says goodbye

To enter, visit the online quiz entry form on the CX World site. The deadline is noon on Friday, 14 December.

First prize this month is a mixed case of wine worth HK$1,200 sponsored by Essential Fine Wines.

Essential Fine Wines is a Hong Kong-based company specialising in providing

boutique wines from around the world. Every wine is hand selected by the experienced team who

make regular visits to Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and Spain looking for exciting new wines.

Essential Fine Wines also supplies to hotels, clubs, restaurant and bars around the region.

Visit www.efw.com.hk for more.

The second prize winner will receive a Maxwell & Williams dim sum 22-piece set and an elemental five-piece kitchen condiment and grinder set.

A fun and artistic product, the dim sum set includes four pairs of chopsticks, chopsticks stands, bowls, placemats and a bamboo steamer, while the condiment set consists of a glass

pepper grinder, a glass salt grinder, a stainless steel storage caddy and two pieces of glass oil or dressing pourers.

Maxwell & Williams started from humble beginnings in Melbourne but today is a global brand with a presence in over 30 countries around the world including the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy and Canada.

For more information, go to www.maxwellandwilliams.com.

TOP SCORE!: The Bangkok Line Maintenance team had

a fun football match with a team from Thai Airways.

CHAIR-RAISING: Staff dressed in sor-cerer/sorceress costumes took part in the sedan chair race around the peak in October, raising funds to support charitable organisations.

BABY TALK: ISD hosted a baby-crawling contest

with more than 60 children taking part. Philippe

de Gentile-Williams and Liza Ng were on hand to

present the prizes. COSTUME CULTURE: ISD staff wear Indian dress to farewell

Charlie Stewart-Cox before he leaves for South Asia.

MATCH UP: The CX Tennis Team was third in the Interhong 2012 championship.

FIRST DECADE: JNB’s Sharon Chen receives her 10-year service award from Country Manager Frosti Lau.

If you are looking for a crazy, fun holiday, then Las Vegas is the place for you.

The Las Vegas strip is home to some of the most unbelievable hotels in the world – The Venetian, Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace and Luxor to name a few – and it’s a treat to walk through these pleasure palaces and take in

their authenticity and grandeur.Many of the hotels are themed

and each one has taken an idea and run with it – the Paris Las Vegas Hotel

is built like the city of Paris, complete with a miniature Ei-ffel Tower, while the pyramid-shaped Luxor leaves the

SHOW US YOUR TIPS!CX World welcomes staff travel tips from across the network – email us at CCD#SCT

Southern staysThe Indaba Hotel – Fourways in Johannesburg is offering

CX staff special prices from 810 ZAR (US$93) for a single

room with breakfast. The 260-room country-style property

is located north of Johannesburg and is nestled beneath the Magaliesberg Moun-tains.

Guests can enjoy a range of massages and beauty treatments at the Mowana Spa before sitting down to a traditional African cuisine buffet of game meats at Chiefs Boma. The property also has an all-day dining venue called Epsom Terrace with international buffets available all day.

More information on Travel Desk.

It’s com-ing down Christmas The festive season is fast approach-ing and thousands of visitors will descend on the medieval Belgium town of Bruges for the annual Christmas Market.

Running from 23 November to 1 Janu-ary, the Christmas Market is held in the main square and forms a ring around an open-air ice rink.

The festive stalls are crammed with elegantly packaged chocolates, brightly coloured sweets, unusual hand-made decorations and a range of toys.

After a day of browsing, visitors can relax in one of the many bars and restau-rants surrounding the square.

Go to www.christmasmarkets.com for more.

Lighting up the centre The 80th Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit by 30,000 energy efficient LED lights on 28 November and will re-main on display until 7 January.

The ceremony signals the start of the Christmas season in New York City and is loaded with live entertainment and celebrity glitz.

See www.rockefellercenter.com

This month’s contribution comes from Systems Specialist Francesca Law and is a sunset shot of the Gaomei Wetland Preser-vation Area in Taichung.

The wetlands have been set aside as a nature reserve and a wide variety of wildlife, including migratory birds, can be seen throughout the area.

“We made a trip there over a long week-end and saw many different animals. There is also a windfarm with18 turbines and the view of the sunset there is amazing,” says Francesca.

The area also has biking paths and hiking trails which enable visitors to go exploring.

VIVA LAS VEGAS: (Clockwise from top) The world at your fingertips; the Bellagio’s dancing fountains; and indulging in a shoe fetish.

Regional Assistant Marketing Services Manager – South Asia Desiree Dubier soaks up the party atmosphere of the casino capital

Every month, CX World invites all CX staff to tell unusual, interesting or just downright quirky tales of travel moments around the world.

Sponsored by Inflight Sales, the lucky sender of the main story receives HK$500 worth of inflight sales products of their choice from the ever-changing collection of over 260 items on offer (excluding liquor and cigarettes).

Go shopping at www.cathaypacific.com/dutyfree

visitor in no doubt of the fact that Egypt was the in-spiration.

Casinos, of course, are the lifeblood of Las Vegas and it’s impossible not to try your luck.

The best part is when you sit down at a slot ma-chine – the drinks are free and if you pick up a drink in one hotel you can drop off your glass at another!

Las Vegas is also known for its numerous shows with entertainers ranging from Criss Angel and David Cop-perfield to Celine Dion and Rod Stewart.

The Cirque du Soleil shows are a must. Their performances combine acrobatics with music, dance and take creativity and imagination to a whole new level.

The Bellagio, Mirage and Treasure Island hotels stage free shows practically

every hour. The magical dancing

fountains at the Bellagio or the Fire & Water show at the Mirage are mesmerising.

For the brave-hearted, try the rides at the Stratosphere Hotel which offer heart-pound-ing thrills high above the building.

You can also experience a sky jump from the 108th floor or the X-Scream ride that propels you headfirst 27 feet over the edge of the 886 foot-tower.

For me, Vegas was everything I’ve ever seen in the movies and much more.