The original cadet pilot program was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The airline has earlier been hit by a wave of pilot resignations as resentment over Hong Kong's strict quarantine regime boils over and the crew scrambles for emerging opportunities overseas.

It said the partnership with PolyU will greatly expand the number of cadets who can be trained under the program each year.

The airline aims to welcome some 190 candidates this year, and will have the capacity to take in between 240 and 300 per year from 2023 to 2025. This compares to around 180 cadets trained in 2019.

Since the inception of the program in 1988, the airline has trained more than 1,000 cadet pilots from Hong Kong.

The 55 to 60 week of training courses is structured so that candidates will undergo their ground theory lectures under the auspices of PolyU in Hong Kong.

Successful candidates will then commence flight training in either Adelaide, Australia or Phoenix in the USA before returning to Cathay City for multi-crew simulator training.

Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer Greg Hughes said the airline has recommenced recruiting local pilots in the summer of last year, including some 200 eligible, qualified pilots for Cathay Pacific, and altogether about 300 for the group’s airlines.

The first batch of 24 candidates starting the integrated course in Hong Kong were welcomed on Monday and are scheduled to commence flight training in October after they have completed the ground theory portion.

In addition to running the new integrated courses at PolyU, Cathay Pacific will also conduct four additional training courses based on the original program module in Adelaide. The next batch of 24 candidates is due to start the Adelaide program course in late April.

Furthermore, Cathay Pacific is about to welcome onboard the first of its fully trained and qualified cadets who were unable to join the airline in 2020 due to the pandemic. A total of 150 such cadets will be able to start working within this year.

Application details can be found here.