Editorial | High expectations on Hong Kong’s Cathay executives to deliver after pay rise
- City flag carrier, having been bailed out by taxpayers, must now redouble efforts to restore city’s status as an international aviation hub
Cathay Pacific Airways has had an arduous struggle to recover from the pandemic. Hit hard when passenger traffic was decimated by quarantine restrictions, it shed staff including pilots and crew and took a multibillion-dollar bailout from the government in 2020 to survive.
Its once vaunted service suffered, while limited flights and higher fares led to sustained grumbling even among loyal passengers.
So when it announced earlier this year that it had returned to profitability for the first time in four years, expectations were raised for accelerated improvement of services, restoration of old routes and addition of new ones, more frequent flights and lower ticket prices.
What was not raised were expectations of healthy compensation packages for the top executives while the work was still ongoing.
Detailed in the airline’s latest annual report and reported by the Post, Cathay paid its 20 executive directors about 20 per cent more than in 2019, before the pandemic. CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por was highest paid, with a package worth HK$10.45 million (US$1.3 million), up 32 per cent from 2022.
CFO Rebecca Sharpe was second-highest at HK$9.71 million, up more than 35 per cent, and chairman Patrick Healy received HK$8.66 million, up more than 38 per cent.