HONG KONG WINNER - Cathay Pacific

10
WHAT I DO
Peter
Langslow,
General
Manager
Cargo
Services
What is the main part of
your job?
The job of Cargo Services is to
deliver the world’s highest standards
of safety as well as operational
and service excellence, and
my role in this endeavour is to
direct, support and challenge the
teams in Cargo Services, in Hong
Kong and around the world.
An important part of the job is
to ensure we prepare and adapt
well to the changes we face – new
aircraft types with the Dash-8
freighter, new systems with
the ALPS freighter load control
system, the new Cargo Terminal
opening at HKIA in 2013, the
transformation from paper to
e-freight, and the constant regulatory
changes impacting safety
and security and customs.
What is your training/
background?
A history degree a long time ago!
And 26 years with CX, of which 14
have been in outports, and the
last seven in other service and
operational areas.
What do you like best about
your job?
I like the fact that operational
and service quality is so central to
what we do as an airline; and that
this is as true in cargo as in the
passenger side of the business.
It’s all about people – and we
have a great team at CX.
The fact that the effect of what
we do (for better or worse!) is immediately
apparent in the performance
results we obtain, so the
feedback loop is always there.
And it is never boring!
What is the most challenging
part of your job?
We operate in a vital and complex,
but constrained, part of the
business. The task is always – and
inevitably – to achieve higher
standards, but we do not have
limitless resources.
People who have worked with
me before know that I manage by
asking basic questions.
I try to build for myself a comprehensible
mental model of how
things work and why, and then
challenge the team to consider
new or alternative approaches
that may be worth exploring.
Briefings help outports get PSS-ready
Staff from outports have been taking
advantage of a series of briefings
being conducted by the PSS
team to clarify details of their role
during and after the cutover.
Programme Managers Sonja Nigmann
and Robert Weider have conducted
briefings in Tokyo, Singapore,
Vancouver, London, Colombo,
San Francisco and Sydney. Taiwan,
Korea and Hong Kong-based staff
were briefed in Hong Kong, while
China staff were briefed in Shanghai
and Beijing in Putonghua.
“We had a goal to reach 90% of
the PSS coordinators around the
world, which is over 140 people. We
achieved that goal and at times even
had General and Country Managers
showing up for the briefings wanting
to learn more,” says Robert.
The team is using the briefings to
demystify the PSS coordinator’s role
and to ensure they are feeling comfortable.
“We want the coordinators to fo-
Japan recovery on course
Osaka the star performer as passenger numbers get back on track
Traveller numbers between Hong
Kong and Japan have recovered
since the March earthquake, with
routes back in full service and positive
passenger growth recorded for
the first time since the disaster.
“In November, all our Japan
routes except Tokyo surpassed their
revenue performance of last year,”
says General Manager Sales, Pearl
River Delta & Hong Kong Chitty
Cheung.
“Positive growth for passenger
numbers was recorded for both October
and November,” she adds.
The Osaka route has emerged as
the star performer, with Marketing
& Sales Manager Japan James Evans
saying revenue from the Osaka
route for the year to date is well
above 2010.
cus on getting the staff trained up
and ready and on support during
the cutover, rather than focus on
what is beyond their control,” he
says.
“As we’ve gone around, we’ve
gotten a better idea of what the
real concerns are in the outports
and we have been able to address
them in follow-up presentations
and through the FAQs that are available
on the PSS Coordinators Sharepoint,”
Sonja says.
“So the questions have moved on
from ‘what and when is the cutover?,’
to asking specific questions on how
the systems will work during and
after cutover. Ports have a good
grasp of what their own actions will
be during the process so their bigger
concerns are around the system
support,” she adds.
After the London briefing, Passenger
Services Officer/Airport Trainer
Andrew Franklin said it was good
to have the Europe staff together to
“The disaster had a different impact
across Japan, and Osaka was
relatively less affected than other
cities such as Tokyo,” says James.
“In fact, there were many cases of
companies moving offices temporarily
to Osaka,” he adds.
James says a quick rebound in
Tokyo, which is CX’s biggest market
in Japan, would be important to the
overall market recovery.
“While Economy Class showed
a dip, revenue from the front end
grew from April to September, with
August and September proving to
be particularly strong,” he says.
James attributed Japan’s quick
recovery to a string of promotional
campaigns that helped rebuild demand
for Japan, including the two
CX initiatives – “We Love Japan” and
LEARNING CURVE: Robert and Sonja (front left) answer questions from staff
during the London briefing.
learn from each other see what status
everyone was at.
“It helps us be more prepared as a
team,” he said.
Manager on Duty – Singapore
“Hong Kong Style” – as well as
media familiarisation trips and
Getaway Surprise! packages,
which all helped to stimulate
the demand for travel.
Moving forward, CX will operate
extra sectors to Sapporo and
Osaka over Christmas.
Chitty foresees that Osaka will
continue to lead the race among
Japan routes, and expects Tokyo
to remain relatively weak over the
festive season.
“This year, the most popular
Christmas holiday destinations
for Hong Kong people are Korea,
Taiwan and Southeast Asia,” says
Chitty.
“Some of the Tokyo demand has
been shifted to other regional destinations
over Christmas.”
Jeyanthi V, said: “Overall, the briefing
was very fruitful as the group was
small and more interactive. We also
had the opportunity to exchange
ideas and learn from each other.”
Celebrating a landmark
moment for a great engine
The Cathay Pacific Group is now the world’s biggest operator of the Trent 700
engine produced by Rolls-Royce and, on 14 November, CX took delivery of the
manufacturer’s 1,000th engine.
The airline group currently operates 48 Trent-powered A330-300 aircraft
and has another 19 on firm order. The 1,000th engine will be deployed on the
airline’s A330 fleet of passenger aircraft.
Engineering Director Chris Gibbs joined Rolls-Royce Chief Operating Officer
– Civil Aerospace Eric Schulz and Airbus A330 Chief Engineer Christian Favre
at a special ceremoy for the handover of the 1,000th engine.
Chris (pictured left with Eric) says the product has been a success story for
CX. “The Trent 700-powered Airbus A330 is a world-beating engine-airframe
combination that has achieved success as a result of its excellent commercial
performance and passenger appeal over short- to medium-range missions.
The Trent-powered A330 will go down as one of the most successful aircraft of
all time,” he says.