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Recruitment takes on a Leaner lookReduced wastage and simpler processes boost PNL team’s efficiencyThe People Department’s ground staff recruitment team has applied Lean methodology to their work in a bid to achieve an overall efficiency gain, along with a sizeable reduc-tion in recruitment lead times.

The department recruits more than 1,200 ground positions for Hong Kong and outports every year.

This process involves steps that are operationally intensive: the re-cruitment team focuses the major-ity of their resources on process-oriented tasks instead of giving consultative support to the hiring departments.

This ultimately hampers line de-partments when they need to de-ploy people resources for the busi-ness.

“One of the first steps of Lean is identifying what not to do,” says Albert Wong, General Manager People.

“There are plans to introduce au-tomation and standardisation to

our recruitment process, but first we need to ‘clear the house’ before we can introduce these changes.”

With this in mind, the People De-partment joined with the corporate Lean team to set about eliminating wasteful processes and reduce un-necessary manual effort to achieve more efficiency.

Using Lean methodologies, the teams sifted through current pro-cesses to identify 21 different types of Non Value-Added (NVA) wastages out of 33 process steps.

Further analysis shows that 47% of these NVA activities involved over-processing, or are valueless legacy tasks.

The teams prioritised 13 areas for improvement, with the recruitment team already taking key measures to capture the “low-hanging fruits”, or quick wins.

Although still in the first phase of the Lean process, the team forecasts a 14% reduction in internal recruit-

ment lead time as a direct result of key measures taken over the next two months. 24% of the process steps have already been eliminated or simplified, allowing recruiters to devote more resources for value-added functions, resulting in an ef-ficiency gain of over 10%.

“The true success of this Lean

project is not measured by the KPIs, but by the sustainability of this mindset across the department and the company at large,” says Albert.

“This requires the team to con-stantly ask themselves innovative questions that challenge the status quo, and implement Lean measures with passion and determination.”

n Awards roll inCathay Pacific was named Inflight Retailer of the Year at the 2014 Fron-tier Awards on 29 October – the fifth time to win this prestigious award since 2008. CX and its inflight sales concessionaire, ISG, sent in a joint submission for the award.

CX also took home multiple honours at the U Magazine Travel Awards 2014 (below) including Favourite Cabin Crew, Favourite First Class Cabin, Favourite Premium Economy Class Cabin and Favourite Inflight Entertainment System.

And the IT Service Centre was awarded a Bronze medal in the Inbound Contact Centre category at the 2014 Hong Kong Call Centre Association Award Ceremony.

n Extra flight for SeoulCapacity will be increased to Incheon from 23 November through to 14 March 2015 with an additional daily flight.

CX430 will depart Hong Kong at 6.35pm and return from SEL at 1.55am, turning the route into a seven-times-daily service for this period.

Operations from the 2015 sum-mer schedule will be decided at a later stage.

n New Deli Delight websiteCathay Pacific Catering Services has relaunched its Deli Delight website – www.deli-delight.com – with a fresh new design and additional features.

“By moving to a customer- centric interface, customers can access item descriptions and other information easily – and the long-awaited door-to-door delivery service will make your shopping even more convenient!” says Pat Cheung, Deli Delight Manager.

Professional chefs’ tips and reci-pes will be introduced in February 2015 and there is also a Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/delidelight) where staff can swap ideas and catch up with the latest food news.

Briefs

Transportation Inventory Waiting Overproduction Overprocessing DefectsMotion

What is Lean?A five-step though process that guides Lean implementation

Specify value from the standpoint of customers.

Identify the steps that add value to the process from the value stream and eliminate non-value-added steps as much as you can.

Make these processes value flow towards the customer by their pull.

Involve and empower employees.

Continuously improve in pursuit of perfection.

Lean methodologiesSeveral Lean methodologies were used to help the People team streamline their processes. Here are a few:

Root cause (fishbone) analysis: Use a fishbone diagram to identify all possible causes and relations, and identify and prioritise top problems for improvement roadmap.

5-why analysis (right): Using iterative question-asking techniques that leverage information from answers, to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem.

Failure mode and effect analysis: Using a structured approach to identify how a process can fail, estimate the risk associated with severity and occurrence of failure, and prioritise the risks that the team needs to address. Risk priority = Severity x Occurrence

TIMWOOD waste analysis (below): Identifying wastes related to Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing and

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At the end of October we announced an important development that will see a more contemporary and consistent approach to design at Cathay Pacific.

The change began with the unveil-ing of a new logo – a cleaner, simpler design that is now beginning to ap-pear around the airline. We have kept the key element of our previous logo, the brushwing, because it is quintes-sentially Cathay Pacific, but have cre-ated a crisper, fresher logo that marks the beginning of a new chapter.

After all the fantastic work – and huge investment – to upgrade our fleet and products over the past three years, we are now beginning work to deliver a more consistent experience to our customers at all touch-points in their journey.

The new logo is just the first step. Over the coming 18 months a series of exciting initiatives will help to redefine the passenger experience – starting with a new-look corporate website that embraces our new approach to design and offers customers a better experience when they interact with us online.

This new approach to design will also be reflected in future lounge refreshes. A brand-new look will be un-veiled for the first time in our Haneda lounge, which opens next month, and will later be employed in The Pier and subsequent lounge upgrades around the network.

Staff will see elements of the brand changes and new design philosophy, too, with everything from crew brief-ing rooms to business cards being updated over time. It’s important to stress that the rollout will be in stages. Cost has been part of the equa-tion from the outset so we haven’t launched any projects that weren’t already in the pipeline, and we will use up old stock wherever possible.

I hope everyone in Cathay Pacific is excited about the changes that have begun to happen. I firmly believe that using design to shape a better customer experience is not just a “nice to have” – it is, in fact, a competitive imperative.

Ivan Chu

Chief ExecutiveMessage

Hot on the heels of the rollout of the Passenger Services System (PSS) comes the development of the Cargo Service System, or simply CSS. 

The scope of CSS covers the replacement of legacy systems CUBIC (a reservation and han-dling system) and AMBER (a revenue account-ing system).

Described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportu-nity for Cargo to build a platform for its future business development, the CSS programme reached a significant milestone last month when CX signed a contract with a leading cargo IT provider, the Luxembourg-based CHAMP Cargosystems.

Under the agreement, CHAMP Cargosystems will deliver a new cargo IT solution called Car-gospot to replace CUBIC and AMBER. 

Cargospot is a community system that serves more than 60 airline customers.

CX will subscribe to the software as a pay-as-you-go service.  

Apart from reduced running costs compared to CUBIC, CSS also makes way for opportunities such as more efficient up-selling, which drives incremental value; as well as timelier decisions on the deployment of aircraft types.

“Close to 23% of the company’s revenue comes from Cargo.  The success of CSS is essen-tial to CX’s continued success,” says Lionel Kwok, General Manager CSS.

“The new systems will be connected to 26 other systems at CX, serving 107 ports – includ-ing freighter ports – and impacting more than 2,000 staff users working in CGO, GHA, FIN, GGT and IMT.  It is a large, complex project, and I would be grateful for everyone’s support,”   Lio-nel says.

Senior Captain Malcolm Waters and Senior First Officer David Hayhoe were once again honoured for their outstanding airmanship on CX780 on 13 April 2010.

Their safe handling of a totally unexpected

The new system will roll out in phases around the network from early 2016 onwards.  

The journey will not end with the cutover however, as CHAMP has committed to allocat-ing development resources to accommodate Cathay Pacific’s business requirements in the first five years following the rollout, as well as

inflight emergency earned them the presti-gious Hugh Gordon-Burge Awards, given out by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots at their annual Trophy and Awards dinner on 23 October in the Guildhall, London.

Earlier this year, Mal-colm and David received the Polaris award from the International Federa-tion of Airline Pilots’ As-sociations (IFALPA).

“It is a tremendous privilege to be presented with the award. Malcolm and I are joining a list of previous award winners who have carried out

extraordinary feats of aviation skill and air-manship, and to be considered in such a light is quite over-whelming,” says David.

“The surroundings of Guildhall in London’s centre are steeped in his-

community development. The CSS programme also includes a revamp

of Cargo’s business intelligence carried out by IMT.

Business intelligence is the set of tools used to transform raw data into meaningful informa-tion for business analysis.

tory dating back centuries, and the wonderful ceremony of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots certainly added to the spectacle of a mag-nificent evening,” the Senior First Officer adds.

“It was indeed a grand evening made even more special by having our awards presented by His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent. An absolute honour,” says Malcolm.

“We are delighted with the well deserved rec-ognition that our pilots are receiving for their outstanding airmanship on CX780 in 2010,” says Director Flight Operations Richard Hall.

“The presentation of the Hugh Gordon-Burge Award is indeed worthy recognition of their ac-tions. The award has previously been present-ed to two current pilots in the company, Mark Hoey and Steeve Michielsen, who also demon-strated great skill in very challenging situations,” Richard says.

Taking cargo into the futureNew platform set to replace 30-year-old legacy IT system

Pilots honoured for airmanship

Read Malcolm and David’s story in the

April 2014 edition of CX World

DEAL SEALED: (From left) James Fernandez, VP Global Commercial Operations, CHAMP; Alan Glen, GM Cargo Services; James Woodrow, Director Cargo; and John Johnston, CEO, CHAMP.

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Sydney route turns 40Staff and passengers celebrate Cathay Pacific’s long-term Australian ties On 21 October 1974, a Cathay Pa-cific Boeing 707 left Hong Kong for Sydney on a non-stop commercial flight for the first time.

It was to be the beginning of a 40-year relationship that saw the carrier flying more than 10 million passen-gers between the two cities.

From its humble beginnings as a thrice-weekly service, the route has now grown to four flights a day, or 28 flights a week.

From initially deploying a 707, the Sydney route has gone on to be operated by 747s, A330s and, from later this year, 777-300ERs.

In late October, the airline cele-brated four decades of flying to Syd-ney in style, with a string of activities for staff, passengers and VIPs.

“The celebrations were a delight-ful way to thank all the staff and cli-ents who have helped us grow into the sizeable operation we are to-day!” says General Manager South-west Pacific Nelson Chin.

“Sydney has been a bit of a pio-neer for CX, from being the only true long haul in our network in 1974, to the creation of a centralised reser-vations office for Australia, and as

one of the earliest adopters of non-smoking flights anywhere in the world,” Nelson says.

“That pioneering spirit runs deep in our team over the years, where we embrace innovation and love to challenge the status quo with the aim to be the best at what we do.”

The celebrations will continue throughout October and Novem-ber: CX will give out inflight shop-ping vouchers and airport lounge access to selected passengers, and run an online competition that enti-tles the winner to a Hong Kong holi-day at The Peninsula on Premium Economy tickets.

Retired Australian Captain Hal Dyball was looking good when he strolled down Martin Place in October 1974, flanked by six cabin crew – just like he did four decades ago when he starred in Cathay Pacific’s ads for the Sydney route (pictured top and above).

The pilot’s face was omnipresent back in the day.

“In those days, I couldn’t go to the movies without seeing myself on the big screen,” Hal laughs. “I not only appeared in the filmed ads, but also saw my face on posters on the windows of travel agents all over Sydney.”

Hal was part of a group of pilots and flight attendants who flew on a promotional tour around Australia to promote the launch.

They were all part of a roving show in which flight attendants took part in fashion shows wearing their national costumes and the British and Australian pilots spoke reassuringly about working with the “Oriental” airline.

Leo Schofield was then the copywriter for the advertising campaign and says 40 years ago, it was important to talk up the credentials of flight crew.

“Australians were used to flying with Qantas or British Airways, so we wanted to reassure them that Cathay Pacific pilots were just as reliable and skilful in the cockpit, and had attentive flight attendants as well, so we wrote the line – ‘You’ll fly with people who care – experienced Australian and British pilots and flight engineers, charming Asian hostesses,’” he says.

RECREATING AN ICONIC AD

Remembering the first-ever Sydney flightWhen the inaugural CX101 landed in Sydney on 22 October 1974, Iris Lim was in her early 20s, waiting on the tarmac with seven other glamourous flight attendants from Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The job was the envy of many women and difficult to attain, as a second language was

PARTY PEOPLE: VIP parties, staff gatherings and a water cannon salute were all part of Sydney’s 40th birthday celebrations. Also in town for the anniversary were Directors James Barrington and Dane Cheng.

mandatory as well as perfect English – along with style, grace and impeccable grooming.

The role was quite different from that of today. The 707 only had First and Economy classes (Business wasn’t invented yet).

Inflight “entertainment” comprised playing cards and cigarettes. There was entertainment (of a type) in First Class when crew served meals in silver service style. The highlight was roast meat carved elaborately in front of the eight passengers.

“Rack of lamb was always tricky. We had to add white frills – you never see them now – before carving and serving,” says Iris.

There was no rest area for crew and the best spot to take a break was an Economy seat.

“It was very tiring,” Iris confesses. “You were really on your feet for almost all of the time – we pretty much walked from Hong Kong to Sydney! And you had to do it as stylishly as possible.”

Iris Lim (second from left)

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Did you know?Although the first non-stop CX passenger

flight to Sydney was in 1974, in fact the airline’s first-ever commercial flight was bringing cargo to

Sydney back in 1946.Using a DC3 called Betsy, CX’s founders flew an

aircraft filled with boxes of day-old baby chicks. The kind-hearted crew, concerned the tiny birds

would stifle in the heat over the tropics, opened the cartons to give them air.

The cabin was soon filled with flightless baby birds racing to and fro, which the

crew, thankfully, managed to return to their cartons!

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n Major upgrades to one-world events

oneworld has unveiled a series of significant upgrades to oneworld events, its one-stop, easy-to-use travel service for the conventions, conferences, exhibitions and special events markets.

Key improvements include the removal of booking fees for flight reservations made via oneworld events’ dedicated website; avail-ability of oneworld events flight discounts via designated travel agencies; and the expansion of the network covered by oneworld events to almost 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries.

The enhancements were announced on the opening day of IMEX America, in Las Vegas, one of the biggest annual conventions worldwide for the conferences, conventions, exhibitions and events industry.

More at www.oneworld.com

n Support the CX pedallersThe Hong Kong 24-hour Charity Pedal Kart Grand Prix 2014 will be held at Victoria Park on 22-23 November with a number of CX teams taking part.

The ultimate aim of this charity event is to raise money for those in need, with all proceeds going to charities supported by the Hong Kong Round Table includ-ing Feeding Hong Kong, Mother’s Choice, Crossroads and Justice Centre Hong Kong.

This year the CX Pedal Kart Committee aims to raise more than HK$550,000 from individual and corporate sponsors – for details of how you can contribute, see the link in Zone Highlights on the IntraCX homepage.

n RightChoice enrolment begins RightChoice enrolment for 2015 began for Hong Kong-based staff on 10 November and will run until Sunday, 30 November.

If no selection is made by the cut-off date, staff will keep the same benefit entitlements as 2014.

The full RightChoice plan de-tails for 2015 can be found on the RightChoice website on IntraCX.

Briefs

Captain Pye’s 75-mile charity swim

Broadening the cargo networkFreighter business grows with addition of Phnom Penh and Calgary As part of a continuing push to broaden its freighter reach, Cargo will add another new destination – Phnom Penh – to its network this month.

The twice-weekly service to Cam-bodia’s capital city launches on 23 November and will be tagged onto the existing flight that goes via Sin-gapore and Penang.

Su-Yin Krishnan, Regional Cargo Manager, Southeast Asia, says there is huge potential in this fast-emerg-ing market.

“The garment export industry in Cambodia is booming as major manufacturers relocate there from Mainland China and other Southeast Asian countries,” says Su-Yin.

Currently there is a lack of wide-body services and main deck capac-ity out of Phnom Penh, and export cargo is mainly trucked to neigh-bouring cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok for uplift to North America and Europe.

“It is exciting to see wide-body

There were cheers and applause on Discovery Bay beach on 2 November when Captain Bruce Pye emerged from the water after swimming 75 miles around Lantau Island in five days.

Bruce, a longtime Lantau resident, teamed up with friend Olivier Baillet to stage the challenge in support of Plastic Free Seas, a local charity that

capacity being introduced into Cam-bodia, allowing us to connect goods seamlessly to CX’s global network and to better serve our customers,” Su-Yin explains.

The 10 weekly passenger services from Phnom Penh operated by Drag-onair will enable CX to offer more choice and flexibility to its customers in Cambodia.

The Phnom Penh announcement came as Cargo concluded celebra-tions for its last freighter destination launch, with a party held on 16 Octo-ber to celebrate the inaugural flight into Calgary.

Senior Vice President, Ameri-cas Tom Owen and General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing Mark Sutch joined a group of senior cargo staff from the North American team to welcome a group of forwarders and business partners for a cowboy-themed event.

Two days later, white Stetson hats were donned once again as Direc-tor Cargo James Woodrow and Mark

educates the community on the impact of plastic pollution to Hong Kong waters.

“I’ve always wondered whether it would be possible to swim around the whole island and draw people’s attention to the oceans that should be well conserved,” says Bruce.

Setting off from Discovery Bay –

Sutch joined the regional Cargo team and a group of cargo custom-ers to welcome the inaugural CX084 service into Calgary, with a water cannon salute arranged by YYC Air-port Authority.

Guests were invited to go onboard the first 747-8F to touch down at Cal-gary International Airport.

which was also the finishing point – on 29 October, Bruce and Olivier swam 15km each day in stretches of five to six hours.

It was a tremendous physical chal-lenge for the pair. Bruce and Olivier had to battle unstable chilly seas, dodge high-speed ferries travelling through the construction area of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, and swim into a headwind that made waters extremely rough.

Fortunately, the pair was able to enjoy the stunning views along the way.

“Every evening we watched the sun set from our old fishing trawler, where we rested after swimming each day – it was such an amazing experience,” says Bruce.

“The third day was a highlight, as some pink-nosed dolphins swam

The arrival of the big bird attracted a lot of media interest in Calgary, with reporters keen to talk to James Woodrow and Training Captain John Hucal, the commander for the first flight into YYC.

John is a Calgary resident, as is Cap-tain Ludvig Nordrum who skippered the first flight back to Hong Kong.

with us when we passed Tai O at dawn. It’s very humbling to be so close to nature.”

Bruce regards the five-day swim as “an experience of a lifetime”, and thanks all the people who helped them throughout the challenge.

“We had a great support team who did a lot of work behind the scenes. We wouldn’t have been successful without the support of the wonder-ful volunteers,” says Bruce.

Bruce and Olivier have raised a total of HK$110,000 for Plastic Free Seas so far.

“The organisation has earmarked the funds for turning a fishing trawl-er into an educational and research vessel, which will be used to carry local students for visiting the sur-rounding oceans,” says Bruce.

Support the cause by visiting www.justgiving.com/75kmswimchallenge, which accepts donations for Plastic Free Seas until December. For more information about Plastic Free Seas, visit www.plasticfreeseas.org

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View Captain Bruce Pye’s swim challenge video by scanning the QR code below. He is pictured centre.

The PSS programme passed another major milestone last month when Altéa Customer Management (CM) was implemented for all Dragonair flights departing Hong Kong.

The system is now used for some 80 KA departures from Hong Kong every day, as well as more than 120 flights across the rest of the network.

Preparing for the switch was an enormous undertaking involving regular briefings to make sure staff were aware of the procedural changes, said Thomas Lam, PSS Project Manager at Hong Kong Airport Services (HAS).

The programme team needed to develop and deliver bespoke training to more than 1,200 employees.

Staff also had to complete a string of rehearsals to familiarise themselves with the system.

“The main challenge was to ensure that everyone completed training within a short time and had up-to-date knowledge, as some procedures might have changed after training,” says Thomas.

The careful preparation meant that the team was fully prepared for the few minor issues that came up initially during a largely smooth implementation, says Hub Operations Manager Judy Leung.

“On the first day of implementation, there were flight cancellations and aircraft changes due to the bad weather in Shanghai, but staff did not panic – they followed their training and managed the situation perfectly,” says Thomas.

“The clear briefings, guidelines and reference guides also helped,” says Judy.

Both agreed that CM will make work life easier for the newer generation of frontline colleagues.

“It’s much easier to use and cuts down on check-in times, increasing efficiency and enhancing the overall customer experience,” says Thomas.

CM will be implemented this month for all CX flights departing Hong Kong.

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Dragonair leads the way for CM at HKIA

The 8th CX/CA Summit was held in Shenzhen on 16 October. The meeting was co-chaired by CX Chief Executive Ivan Chu and President of Air China Song Zhiyong.

This was the first time both leaders attended the summit as chiefs of their respective organisations.

During the summit, both parties reviewed the good progress of their cooperation over the past year.

New collaborative initiatives covering a wide spectrum of business areas were also identified with senior management assigned as persons-in-charge.

The in-depth, top-level conversation once again demonstrates both airlines’ unwavering commitment to strengthen their long-term strategic partnership.

In closing, Ivan encouraged the two airlines to continue to uphold their cooperative spirit, follow through with the projects to deliver substantive benefits for both carriers, and keep a firm eye on their vision of jointly leading China’s aviation industry in the future.

The next summit will be hosted by CX in October 2015 in Chengdu.

Beaujolais Nouveau is big business – and Cathay Pacific should know, having committed to moving close to 2,000 tonnes of the wine this year.

Since 1985, Beaujolais has been launched on the third Thursday of November, as stipulated by the Union Interprofessionelle des vins de Beaujolais.

Traditionally the wine is shipped overseas ahead of the launch date to make it available at 12.01am local time on the date of release, which this year falls on 20 November.

While shipping the wine to some large markets such as the USA can be achieved using ocean transport, the only viable way to get the wine to Asia in the gap between produc-tion and release is via air – and that’s where CX comes into the picture.

The airline has been flying Beaujo-lais Nouveau out of France since the early nineties when the wine really started to gain popularity in Asia, and the volumes have grown steadily.

“This year we expect to carry ap-proximately 2 million kilos of the wine, which will certainly be a re-cord for us,” says Jean-Luc Py, Cargo Manager France.

As in previous years, the bulk of the wine – approximately 95% – will go to Japan, where the “Bojo” release is always greeted with excitement.

Close to 8 million bottles are ex-pected to be quaffed in Japan this year.

“Consumption demand has re-mained stable in recent years but CX will be the biggest single carrier

to Asia as a result of our team’s ef-forts to stay heavily engaged with the right forwarders and our proven track record in handling this cargo,” says General Manager Cargo Mar-keting & Sales Mark Sutch.

“Jean-Luc and the team spend much time ensuring this is the case and the Beaujolais campaign starts in earnest well before the com-mencement of shipping.”

All Beaujolais is delivered to the CDG warehouse from where CX or-ganises trucking to a number of its

continental freighter and passen-ger points – including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Milan – for uplift.

Beaujolais is heavy, dense cargo that is well suited to the capabilities of the 777-300ER passenger aircraft.

CX288 from Frankfurt on 3 No-vember had a record payload of 33 tonnes of cargo, of which 22 tonnes was Beaujolais.

“In addition to our scheduled Eu-ropean freighters, we will have six Boeing 747-8F freighters returning from the United States via Paris to

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé – CX style!Japan the main destination as record tonnage of wine release shipped

uplift the wine,” says Jean-Luc. “Despite the weaker transatlantic

sector, this still makes commercial sense in light of the full loads from Paris to Hong Kong.”

As CX World went to press, the Beaujolais shipments had been moving according to plan and the Cargo team in Paris was looking for-ward to a well-earned rest after their busiest time of the year.

So will they be celebrating with a bottle or two of Bojo? “No com-ment!” smiles Jean-Luc.

ON THE MOVE: CX expects to carry approximately 2 million kilos of Beaujolais Nouveau this year. The airline is the biggest single carrier of the wine to Asia.

TOP-LEVEL TIES: (Above) Meeting chairs and attendees; (right) Ivan receives a souvenir from President Song.

Working in unison

The start of a new chapter How great design will make people love Cathay Pacific

Once upon a time, a brand was just a logo. The way businesses expressed themselves was just tomake their logos as big and prominent as possible – putting one on as many things as they could as they tried to attract customers.

Think about your favourite shops, services or products today. The way it feels when you walk through the doors. When you hold a device in your hand. Flip the pages of your favourite magazine. The smell of a

lobby. The lighting. The tablecloth. The staff. The music playing. These are things that help make a brand real. To survive a fiercely competitive marketplace, a brand has to be more than merely an image, it has to be a complete experience.

Brands today are not static. They are not confined to their logos. They are a fluid, flexible and living expression of their values and proposition. A brand needs tobe lived by its staff and experienced by its customers.

Cathay Pacific is no exception. Our brand has been built from years of delivering our signature products and standards of service that are admired and trusted byour passengers and peers.

Now we’re bringing it all together. We’ve taken the opportunity to define what we are as a completebrand and what we can do to leave our passengersand our staff knowing exactly what it is that makesus Cathay Pacific. ■

What is a brand today?

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Before we considered a rebrand, we wanted insight and perspective from the people who live and breathe the Cathay Pacific brand –our people and our passengers.

So we went right back to the beginning. Partnering with our brand experience and design agency, Eight Partnership, we carried out research with Cathay staff and reached out to Marco Polo Club members. The results were both comforting and inspiring. What we gained was an insightful understanding of both the perception of the brand today and a vision of where we should be heading in the future.

When we went through the feedback, there were clearly elementsthat resonated from our style of service and communications toour distinctive “Cathay Way”.

Marco Polo Club members talked about their appreciation of our personalised service and our warm thoughtfulness. The deliveryof a contemporary Asian experience was supported by our recognition as an Asia-born brand that has, like the region wecall home, grown and flourished. When it came to designand operations, both travellers and staff enjoyed simplicity.

These insights would not be complete without our enthusiasm forthe romance of travel and the pure joy of discovery that keeps bothus and our passengers so passionate about what we do. ■

Understanding what makes us unique

A new design philosophyThis process of discovery revealed a unifying theme that, to us, absolutely capturedthe Cathay brand, a philosophy of being “Softly spoken, strongly felt”. This philosophy encapsulated that our understated approach has a positive impact on our passengers.The challenge now presented itself: how do we integrate this philosophy into ourproducts and brand experiences in a way that is uniquely Cathay?

We want the Cathay Pacific brand to be a natural and uncomplicated part of ourpassengers’ lives. To deliver on that promise, we have been working with a numberof top-tier international designers to simplify and enhance our brand experience. ■

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The start of a new chapter

The story ofour refined logo Originally inspired by both the spirit of a flying bird and the expressive heritage of Asian calligraphy, it seemed fitting that the iconic brushwing of our logo be freed from its box. Beloved for what it represents, it was time to bring our emblem a more contemporary feel, symbolic of a new chapterin customer experience, design and service.

Once the brushwing had been allowed to fly outon its own it was possible to define the full shape of the iconic brushwing with a simpler silhouette. With this cleaner, modern look, our logo retains the nimble and vibrant energy which characterises us.

The final result is the core symbol of what mattersto us as a brand. As Iain Richardson, Creative Director at Eight says, “It’s been a process of simplification and liberation. In addition to making it more contemporary, the changes are consistent with our overall approach to refining the Cathay Pacific brand – editing, simplifying and aligningit around a well-defined design philosophy, across all areas.” ■

It’s been 20 years since the Cathay Pacific logo was first revealed anda lot has happened since then. Cathay has grown to be one of the most recognisable and trusted brands in aviation, service and travel. Our brand has been defined not only by ourlook and feel, but by our operationsand our service: our daily fulfillingof a promise.

We are leaders in our sector, and were recently voted World’s Best Airline 2014. We always aim to be relevant to our customers and that means evolving.To keep fresh and dynamic, we’ve not only welcomed an updated and refined logo, but a new brand experience process designed to positively benefit our business, our customers and of course our people. ■

How do you refresh an icon?

1994

2014

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Creating new spacesWe’ve created some new crew briefing areas at Cathay City which will be enjoyedby a number of staff. We’ll gradually be refurbishing airport lounges that representour new design philosophy, worldwide. To redesign our lounges, London-basedinterior design agency Studioilse were chosen for their comfortable and naturaldesign style. Their work transforms spaces into accessible, comfortable and welcoming environments. The first opening of the new lounge refurbishments willbe Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in December, with The Pier in Hong Kong also scheduledfor refurbishment in 2015 - so keep an eye out for updates in the New Year. ■

As we all watch this new brand experience come to life, our Brand team will share some behind-the-scenes stories with us from our design partners so we’ll be able to see how “Softly spoken, strongly felt” is developing across different touch points.

Alongside our evolved brand “look and feel” we have been updating our website with refreshed designs released this month. Digital agency DigitasLBi has supported us in creating a website that works on the principle of a “one-stop shop” concept where passengers can also book hotels, packages and more.It will be rolled out in stages over the coming year. ■

Coming soon

What you can do People make an airline. The pride our staff have in their roles has inspired us to createa brand and working environment that is both comfortable and stimulating. As we move forward rolling out our brand guidelines we will need everyone’s helpto ensure they are adhered to.

We encourage all staff to take part in this transformation and to be curious and inquisitive about the new design philosophy as it is put into practice. ■

The start of a new chapter

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Obituary – Captain Paul HorstingFriends and former colleagues were saddened to receive news of the passing of Captain Paul Horsting on 17 October.

Capt Horsting’s career at Cathay Pacific spanned 26 years. In addition to being an accomplished aviator he spent some 12 years in the role of Manager International Operations, traversing the world and working with the International Affairs team to gain approvals for a number of pioneering routes for the airline.

Among his major achievements was helping to open up a new route through

North Korea to South Korea at a time when the countries were still technically at war.

Capt Horsting also became synonymous with helping to develop the North Pole route from North America to Asia.

A crowning moment of his career was being commander on the famous Polar One flight – the first non-stop flight from New York to Hong Kong, which was also the

first flight to arrive at the new Hong Kong International Airport on 6 July 1998.

Capt Horsting retired from the airline in 2001.

Handling just got easier!New web-based data logging system gives Customer Relations a boost

The Customer Relations Department cel-ebrated the launch of its new IT system, the Customer Feedback and Compensation Sys-tem, on 15 October.

The new system is a cloud-based solution based on technology from Salesforce.com, and will be used by the Customer Relations teams in Hong Kong and the Mumbai Service Centre, as well as outport customer relations representatives worldwide.

“The Customer Feedback and Compensa-tion system is designed as a one-stop plat-form replacing two legacy systems, Kana and CRMS,” says David Ryan, Head of  Customer Relations. “It is a lot more stable than those systems and will help boost our productivity.”

The new web-based interface and pre-filled templates make it much easier to log cases.

Related documents, from compensation policies to each country’s complaint handling regulations, are stored in the system for easy reference.

Better yet is the system’s compatibility with mobile devices.

The platform’s discussion thread function,

Chatter, is another helpful feature. By giving all colleagues easy access to dis-

cussion threads, everyone can be updated with the latest handling information and can share questions and best practices.

“This allows our staff to keep track of the details and progress of cases with ease, while expiry alerts are set as a reminder of each case’s deadline,” says David.

The system can also generate customisable statistical reports.

At the same time as the system was launched, online feedback forms were lauched in an additional five languages – Thai, Italian, Dutch, German and French.

This will enable customers in those regions to pass feedback to use in their local languag-es and will help facilitate better case handling in those regions.

“With the new platform in place, we are now working to automate manual processes like issuing vouchers to customers,” David says.

“We’re also looking at extending system functionality to other teams, such as Baggage Services.”

WAY FORWARD: The new Customer Feedback and Compensation System will improve productivity.

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Another 747 farewellHaving said goodbye to CX’s last 747 long-haul passenger flight at the end of August, SFO Engineering Manager Jim Aspros and his team bade farewell to another Jumbo.

The SFO ENG team has been handling technical support for Air New Zealand since 2004 and provided maintenance for the final months of NZ’s 747 operation, which were exclusively on the Auckland to San Francisco route.

The final NZ B744 flight, NZ7, departed from San Francisco on 11 September, operated by ZK-NBV, and Jim and his team were on hand to dispatch the aircraft, receiving a nice comment in the Captain’s final log entry.

NZ MOC Engineer, MOC and Outstations, Wenjie He added his own note of gratitude. “Thanks for the great efforts over the years to provide engineering supports to this beast in SFO,” Wenjie wrote in an email.

Time to say goodbyeIt was an evening of very mixed emotions when the Karachi team gathered on 5 September.

The occasion was certainly a sad one – to say goodbye to the teams who worked loyally to run Cathay Pacific’s operation in Pakistan for the past 14 years.

But it was also a happy event as staff from the Airport and Cargo teams, and CX’s GSA in Pakistan, gathered for a barbeque hosted by Country Manager Pakistan Feroze Jamall.

Everyone enjoyed an evening of good company, delicious food, music, dancing and a lot of fun.

“The day had come where we had to say goodbye and wish our colleagues good health and success in their future endeavours,” says Feroze.

China team gets busy on social mediaIt is an exciting time for the China Sales & Marketing team, which has just launched two major projects on social media platforms Taobao and WeChat to take its online presence to a whole new level.

Taobao is one of the world’s 10-most-visited websites, and Tmall is a business-to-consumer (B2C) spinoff run by Alibaba for businesses. The CX Group is first non-Chinese airline group to open its Tmall store, cathaypacific.tmall.com, as a direct sales channel.

On 28 October, the day CX announced the launch of its own Tmall store, Taobao also announced a new brand identity for its travel arm called”去啊!”, meaning “Go!”

CX also became the first international airline to participate in the Double 11 shopping festival on 11 November on Taobao, which generated a transaction volume of CNY35 billion last year.

“From network connectivity to products, CX is committed to upgrading our offerings in all areas. This also applies to our web and mobility services,” says General Manager China Paul Loo.

At the moment, the CX Tmall page only offers six Chinese cities as destinations, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanking, Xiamen and Chengdu.

But there are plans to introduce more cities and offers on the site as the platform’s technical capability improves, says Manager Marketing & Sales China Kinto Chan.

“The initial response from customers has been very positive,” says Kinto. “We have been enjoying very healthy traffic flow on the site and of course the volume of sales at this initial stage has been encouraging as well.”

The CX Group also launched its official WeChat account at around the same time.

“WeChat is the most popular social media application in China with more than 49% of social sharing done on the platform. Therefore it is very important for the CX Group to have a presence to showcase our brand to the wider Chinese public,” says Kinto.

The team was taken aback by the public response – in the course of a few days, more than 2,200 fans subscribed to the official channel.

“There is a read-and-share campaign on our WeChat channel, so add us and share with your friends. Around the end of November, when we have more fans, we’ll launch a fun game on the platform so please do add us as a WeChat favourite,” he says.

“Our thanks to Sales & Distribution, Digital Retail, Marketing, GGT and RMO for making these projects possible.”

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The Thailand team has demonstrated a great can-do spirit recruiting new Asia Miles members, doubling membership in the space of a year to hit the 100,000 milestone recently.

Leslie Lu, Country Manager Thailand (far right) expressed his gratitude to the team.

“Their determination, commitment and teamwork in driving this initiative have been truly inspiring, driving even greater customer loyalty towards CX and making the World’s Best Airline their preferred carrier. Let’s keep up the great work!”

Separately, Leslie gathered with staff from across different

Celebrating 100,000 Asia Miles members

departments in Bangkok to celebrate CX’s 68 anniversary as well as the recent achievement of being named World’s Best Airline by Skytrax.

The celebrations included a Buddhist ceremony in the morning and a birthday cake-cutting at the Town Office.

Access CX’s Tmall store

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Great day out at NaritaFor four years in a row the Japan team has organised an exclusive field visit to Narita airport as part of its ongoing CSR efforts.

This year’s beneficiaries were 20 elementary school children aged eight to 10 from the Tohoku region, which was affected by the great East Japan earthquake three years ago – the second time the Japan team has showed support to people who are still recovering from that tragic event.

The children took part in a two-day programme that saw them travel by train to Narita for orientation activities and a dinner organised by CX Japan staff volunteers.

The next day, children enjoyed a tour of NRT that included a special cockpit experience in a CX aircraft, trying on CX uniforms and interacting with the operating crew of CX501 on 6 August.

Trees for allThe Johannesburg team has been busy with a number of CSR activities in recent months, including taking part for the third year in Arbor Month activities.

This involves the planting of bamboo trees in communities to help preserve the natural

environment, celebrated in September which is the first month of spring in South Africa.

The team partnered with Food and Trees for Africa as a part of their Trees for All Programme, donating and planting 118 bamboo trees at Kwanele Primary School (Gauteng Province) in Katlehong and 56

bamboo trees at Ntabeni Secondary School in Matatiele (Kwa Zulu Natal Province).

Travel Fairs in IndonesiaThe first-ever Cathay Pacific Travel Fair was staged in Surabaya’s Supermal from 23 to 26 October.

A separate travel fair was staged in Kota Kasablanka in Jakarta in the same period.

Themed around CX’s “World’s Best Airline” Skytrax win, the travel fairs in Indonesia aimed to promote brand awareness, sell air tickets and tour packages, and recruit Asia Miles members. Everything was done at no cost to CX as participating agents paid to join.

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Doha Marketing Executive Shrey Nayar has been given the chance to pursue his dream career since the port came online this spring.

The Mumbai native joined the CX family as a flight attendant two years ago but admits he has always aspired to a career in marketing.

“I’m drawn to the creative and dynamic nature of the job,” says Shrey, who has just completed a two-year MBA course in the discipline.

Outside work, Shrey has a built a reputation as an avid cook amongst friends.

“I’m delighted to prepare foods for my friends when we get together,” Shrey says. “I’ll always try to add a new twist or alternative ingredients to give a nice surprise.”

His favourite dishes include Indian-style butter chicken with naan, chicken in white wine and garlic, and hot chocolate soufflé.

Shrey has a solid culinary background – he graduated in hotel management with majors in cooking and bartending – but says he enjoys the freedom of improvising recipes.

“There is no absolute rule for producing tasty food – you can choose your own ingredients and style,” he says. “In a way this has inspired me to be more creative outside the kitchen, too.”

Recipe for success

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FOOD FOCUS: Outside work, Shrey Nayar’s big passion in life is cooking.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of athletes take on the challenge of the New York Triathlon – one of the most popular sporting events in the city.

Among those who participated this year was New York-based Customer Services Supervisor Isaac Barreiros, who joined CX earlier this year but has worked in the aviation industry for more than a decade.

Although passionate about a number of sports, Isaac says the triathlon is where his strength lies.

Before the New York Triathlon he participated in the New York Five Boro bike tour where he raised more than US$4,000 for The Livestrong Foundation, a charity that provides cancer patients with support.

He also participated in the 2013 Staten Island Triathlon and just completed the same event this year – just a week after the New York Triathlon.

“I want to thank my wonderful wife, Cindy, who has supported me from the beginning to the finishing line in

every event I’ve competed in,” says Isaac.The athlete is also a father who cares

about others’ children as much as he does his own two kids.

“I want to be more than a father and athlete, so I’ve raised funds for

the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the best

paediatric hospitals in the US that promotes a better way to treat childhood cancer and other deadly diseases,”

says Isaac.“The fundraising programme

aims to ensure that patients’ families don’t need to settle bills for medical treatment, travel, housing or food, enabling them to focus on raising their kids healthily.”

Running for a cause

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A special treat for kidsThe team in Kuala Lumpur organised its latest CSR activity in October, hosting around 30 underprivileged kids from the House of Joy organisation to visit the inflight catering facility and take a tour of the airport.

The kids got the chance to bake their own cookies at the airline catering test kitchen and later enjoyed an inflight meal.

The day ended with them seeing takeoffs and landings at KLIA, and the kids wrote their feelings down on Post-it Notes and presented them to CX as a souvenir of a memorable day.

Also last month, the KUL team organised its Top Agents Appreciation Dinner to thank key travel agency and trade partners (pictured left).

A total of 28 travel agencies were feted at the dinner, with the team presenting them with certificates and awards

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Sustainable investment is a fast-growing trend as investors increasingly use corporate sustainability reporting to inform their investment strategies.

By analysing corporate sustainability performance, investors can gain a better understanding of a company’s quality of management and future performance potential.

A company’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance can be examined through specific issues such as corporate governance,  risk management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, supply chain standards, branding, and labour practices.

Institutional investors, asset managers and financial service providers are looking for companies that integrate sustainable business practices actively and effectively.

This interest is sparked in part by expected heavy pressure put on resources such as water, food, and energy, which would drive up commodity prices.

Investors already make reference to quantitative and qualitative information on a company’s environmental risks and liabilities through a number of “information banks”.

For example, in 2014, 767 financial institutions with assets of US$92 trillion signed on to receive climate change related information via the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

Over 50% of the world’s biggest companies by value now provide their climate change information through CDP. Cathay Pacific was on CDP’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index in 2012 and 2013.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) evaluates the corporate sustainability performance of the largest 2,500 companies listed on the global stock market, and is the longest-running sustainability benchmark worldwide. Together with the FTSE4Good Index and, locally, the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index, these are the leading benchmarks for corporate sustainability.

Cathay Pacific is one of few blue chip companies in Hong Kong currently listed in all three of these indices.

By being open and transparent on the sustainability issues that impact our business and our stakeholders, and our approach in managing them, we help investors identify opportunities that generate long-term value and make better-informed investment decisions.

To facilitate access to this information, an Investors Relations section has been included in the CX Sustainable Development Report since 2012.

Investing Sustainably

Letters to the Editor

flyers know they can simply buy EY and get upgraded because they are a frequent flyer? It’s a no-cost item and encourages staff goodwill to upgrade them and perhaps would increase revenue by having passengers pay for J class – thereby forcing staff into EY where apparently they belong!

FOP staff

Jessica Chan, Manager People Services, replies: Thank you for your letter.

able to buy as pre-packaged, re-heatable packs for home cooking.

Does Deli Delight have any plans to introduce take-home pasta and curry sauces to their e-Shop in the near future?

Hungry staff

Andy Wong, General Manager, CPCS replies: CPCS is committed to providing delicious meals and food products so it is our pleasure to receive your compliments. With regards to takeaway items, we need to consider food freshness, hygiene, packaging and labelling issues.

To further enhance our product ranges and offer our best products through Deli Delight, we formed a Research & Development Team in 2012. They are continuously looking at new product developments, such as the hotdogs we introduced in September this year.

Pasta and sauces are definitely being considered and we will explore the best takeaway option for customers while ensuring freshness. Once again, thank you for shopping at Deli Delight.

Livery queryIs there a plan in the near future to change to the livery of the Boeing 777 aircraft in our fleet?

Our name is written too small and is not clearly recognisable from a distance.

I think we have to consider the high value of immediate brand recognition, especially outside of Hong Kong.

Frankfurt staff

Dennis Owen, Manger Brand, replies: We have no current plans to change the livery of our aircraft. However, it may be an option in the future and we thank you for your comments.

Upgrade blues So many flights these days are oversold in Economy. Why is it CX policy to upgrade full-fare passengers and not staff, like all other airlines? Where is the incentive to buy J class if frequent

I can assure you that our elite Marco Polo members are not up-graded on a seat-available basis but are considered in the event that there is an overbooking and we need to clear oversales. This is a commercial arrangement which we have adopted for many years which does not change or impact on staff travel because staff travel-lers will always be accepted after all revenue passengers have been accommodated.

Furthermore, it is very diffi-cult for frequent flyers to predict which flights are overbooked and few would book Economy Class on the assumption that their tier status would get them an up-grade… I’m sure that if they did, they’d be disappointed!

Take-home sauces Some of the lunch boxes produced by CPCS and sold at the Deli Delight counter at CX City have delicious sauces that I’d love to be

Under the current staff travel policy, companions and parents are entitled to 12 and 48 sectors (24 each for mum and dad) respectively on CX/KA per annum. I understand the company might want to give more benefits to parents due to the relationship level. However, I believe I am not the only staff to find that our companions tend to use up all their 12 sectors (six round-trips) while parents fly around three to four round-trips only as, due to age or personal preference, they don’t travel that often. This leads to the wastage of staff benefits and misallocation of resources. In addition, as a staff, we are entitled to unlimited travel. If the purpose of having a companion is for them to travel with us, we are basically limited to travel with our companions a maximum of six times a year on ID tickets.

In view of this, is it possible that the company can allow staff to allocate the number of sectors among their companions and parents at the time of nomination? For example, I can allocate 24 sectors to my travel companion and change

Star Letter prizeThe winner of the CX World Star Letter scores a bottle of Murray Street White Label Barossa Shiraz 2008.

This Barossa Shiraz won the Gold Medal for Best Business Class Red Wine at the 2013 Cellar in the Sky Awards.

The fruits of this wine are sourced from nine differently managed blocks from a variety of fantastic vineyards, giving the wine great complexity.

On the palate, cherries and plums tantalise, supported by chocolate and coffee nuances. This is an elegantly structured wine with generous weight and length.

ISD will be offering a bottle of wine from CX’s Business Class selection every month for the Star Letter winner, so watch this space!

my parents’ quota to 36 (18 each for mum and dad). Such a system would give staff greater flexibility to enjoy their benefits with the over-all company contribution remaining the same. It will potentially generate more revenue too due to more travel by the companions.

CPL staff

Jessica Chan, Manager People Services, replies: Thank you for your suggestion.  When we introduced companion travel it was to recognise unmarried staff who wanted to travel with a friend in the same way that a married staff was able to travel with their spouse.

After introducing companion travel, there were unfortunately numerous reports of abuse, hence the number of sectors offered was not changed and remained at 12 per annum. If we were to increase the number of sectors for companions, we may require the companion to be accompanied by the staff. In any case, any change to the policy will require further study.

More flexibility for ID tickets

WARR descends on Dublin

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HKIA Manager on Duty Jackie Man is the star of a video series produced by Airport Authority Hong Kong to promote the dynamic jobs at Hong Kong International Airport.

Jackie, who has been with CX for 17 years, was invited to represent the airline ground service workforce.

In the one-minute video, Jackie talks about how the dynamic nature of her job keeps her going.

“I never feel bored at work because dealing with every passenger is a new experience. We also need to be flexible and improvise according to different situations,” she says in the video.

Jackie tells CX World that filming was an unforgettable experience for her. “I was definitely honoured and delighted to share my thoughts on my career, which I’m passionate about,” she adds.

Jackie may be a novice in front of the camera, but she knows the importance of expressing herself well after years of experience on the frontline.

“Thanks to years of interacting with customers, I realise that subtle differences in facial expressions can cause very different perceptions!” she grins.

The actual shooting took two days to complete. On the second day, the production moved to an equestrian school in Shek Kong where Jackie demonstrated her jockeying skills.

“I watched some of the equestrian events held in Hong Kong during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and fell in love with the sport,” Jackie says.

“The basic ‘walk, trot, canter’ routine may look simple but it depends heavily on the mutual trust and cooperation of the rider and the horse. The same principle also applies to management,” Jackie says.

A ROLE MODEL AT HKIA

Scan for Jackie’s video, which debuted at the Airport Job

Expo 2014 in August

Twenty-four CX runners journeyed to Ireland last month to take part in the annual World Airline Road Race (WARR).

This 33rd edition of WARR was held in Dublin from 1-5 October with more than 900 runners from various airlines competing over 5km and 10km.

The CX contingent was well prepared, having taken in part in weekly training sessions prior to the event.

They also ran a T-shirt design competition for the event’s legendary T-Shirt Swap Party, with ISD’s Jacky Yuen producing the winning design.

It wasn’t all about running. The CX squad took off for sightseeing trips and enjoyed a “Carb-Loading” dinner to build the team spirit before the race day.

The team performed well with nine runners - Jacky Yuen (ISD), Kia Yin

(LON), Sophy Tong (ISD), Ryan Li (IMT), Kelvin Lo (PNL), James Ginns (EXO), Bowie Lo (ISD), Bibianna Yu (ISD) and Sophy Tong (ISD) – getting top five places in their respective age groups.

In the group category, CX took first place in the 10K Women’s Open, third place in the 5K Women’s Open, second place in the Participation Awards and first place in the Travel Awards.

“This is my first WARR since joining CX and it was amazing,” says Eva Ng (PVO). “It gave us the opportunity to meet new friends in the industry and also allowed us to bond with colleagues from different departments.”

Vanessa Ho (CPL) says the CX team showed great spirit. “Actually we were more like a big family – we cared, supported and cheered for each other not only at the race but during the entire stay there!”

The wine scientistWine expert and student judges a major wine competition

One of the judges for this year’s Cathay Pacific International Wine & Spirits Competition was none other than Manager Global Contact Centres Simon Kriss (left).

The self-professed wine nerd is now completing his dissertation to receive a Masters of Viticulture and Oenology through the University of Melbourne.

The Australian native’s love affair with wine started some 20 years ago when he started drinking older red wines instead of simple whites.

“The wine that first got me started was a 1990 Penfolds Grange. I had a 1992 Hill of Grace not long after. Both Australian, and both stunning examples of a great wine,” says Simon.

“It was a big turning point for me. From then on I wanted to know how wine works and that led to a journey of exploration.”

Simon is interested in the science of wine, as well as the story behind each bottle.

“If you like a wine, you like the 100-plus decisions the winemaker makes. That’s what intrigues me,” he says. “Half of the wine is about story-telling, and I love seeing the passion in the people that make it.” Simon is currently working on his dissertation,

which scientifically explores the ways in which the characteristics of wine change inflight.

He and a group of testers will first taste Cathay Pacif-ic’s First and Business Class wines on the ground, then in the air and back on the ground again immediately

after flight. He’ll then triangulate the data to start to determine the impact of flight on wine.

As for judging the Hong Kong wine competi-tion, Simon says the challenge lay in critiquing a

wine-maker’s hard work.“While it was a lot of fun, and an honour to sample

the best a winemaker has to offer, judging someone’s labours can be like telling an artist you don’t like his paint-

ing!” he says.That said, it was a memorable experience for Simon: “The

morning was spent on wine pairing, so I tried 16 wines with Kung Pao chicken, then 14 wines with chicken tikka, then 14 wines with

pad thai.  After lunch I had to judge 105 wines to determine gold med-als and trophy winners. I had to wash down all of this with a cleansing beer on my way back home!”

The results of Simon’s dissertation will be featured in a coming edition of Discovery magazine for customers to enjoy. Stay tuned!

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