Acting Secretary for Transport & Housing Yau Shing-mu said on Wednesday that local flight crews employed by Cathay Pacific will not be adversely affected by the airline's plan to use temporary foreign-based crews on some foreign routes.

The so-called "cross base flying" trial to be implemented by the airline in 2013 will not affect flying arrangements, salaries, allowances or promotions for local crews, nor will it lead to a loss of local jobs to foreign cities, the secretary said.

Yau gave his answer in response to legislators' questions at the Legislative Council regarding Cathay's plan to recruit some crews at lower costs in other cities.

The airline's new initiative involves three outport bases - San Francisco, Singapore and Bangkok. The trial will last one to three months. It would roster the locally hired employees from San Francisco on Singapore and Bangkok flights, and the employees from Singapore and Bangkok on San Francisco flights.

Yau said the pilot scheme does not involve creation of new posts or outsourcing of local jobs overseas. Besides, neither the total number of flights served by the outport base crew nor the number of local crew serving these flights will be affected, nor will their respective flight hours be impacted. Yau said he based his remarks on information from Cathay Pacific.

At present, Cathay Pacific employs about 950 outport base crew members, representing about 10 percent of its total crew. Considering the needs from the aviation sector, it is an industry-wide practice to employ crew members of different nationalities. There are no indications that Cathay Pacific is outsourcing its local jobs overseas, added Yau.

Meanwhile, members from the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union continued to insist Cathay's initiative not only would affect opportunities for promotion and the income of Hong Kong-based crews but that outsourcing of flight attendants' posts to other locales will, in turn, affect Hong Kong's economy.

Hearing the response from the acting secretary, general secretary of the flight attendants union, Tsang Kowk-fung, said the government showed bias favoring the airline's management and that government officials are not familiar with the scheme.

"The purpose of the scheme is to save salary costs. The salary for outport crews is only one-fifth that of Hong Kong-based crews", he added.

He said he hoped management would settle a contract with staff to guarantee the number of local employees and the density of flights will not be affected by the cross base flying trial. The union will continue to meet to discuss its next moves.

The spokeswoman for Cathay Pacific said, "It is completely groundless to link the cross base flying trial to outsourcing local jobs overseas or transfering of Hong Kong jobs to outports, as the total number of overseas based crews and flights operated by locally based crews will not change as a result of the initiative".

She added this is also not a cost saving initiative, since the cost remains the same. The spokeswoman reiterated, the trial does not affect Hong Kong based crews in any way, including their flying hours, pay, allowances or promotions.

fanfeifei@chinadailyhk.com