An aircraft of Cathay Pacific Photo: Courtesy of Cathay Pacific

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Group made a debut at the ongoing sixth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai, vowing to further develop in the Chinese mainland market.

Cathay Pacific displayed its business class seats from an A350 aircraft, its main long-haul fleet, in its booth. Visitors can sit on the business class seats and experience converting them into beds with one touch.

Cathay Pacific, which is in the process of refreshing its brand, hopes to use its participation in the CIIE as a fulcrum to further expand its 'circle of friends' across the mainland, according to Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por.

In mid-August this year, Lam said that Cathay Pacific Group's global passenger transport capacity has returned to about 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and is expected to reach 70 percent of passenger transport capacity by the end of this year, according to chinanews.com.cn.

Lam predicted that the passenger capacity in November has reached the expected level for the whole year, and is expected to remain at around 70 percent during December.

In May this year, Cathay Pacific faced a strong backlash on social media over discrimination allegations against Chinese mainland passengers. Later, it announced a series of service improvement measures including enhancing service culture training, expanding the scope of Mandarin services, and recruiting flight attendants from Chinese mainland.

Currently, Cathay Pacific has completed first round of recruitment, hiring about 100 flight attendants from the mainland.

Cathay Pacific plans to launch a second wave of recruitment, during which the company will employ 1,500-2,000 flight attendants from the mainland, making the mainland the second largest source of flight attendants after Hong Kong, according to a report on chinanews.com.cn on Monday. 

A record high of more than 300 Hong Kong enterprises are participating in the CIIE, showing growing interest among the Hong Kong business community in the event.

The national development offers the best opportunities for Hong Kong. With our country's staunch support, Hong Kong will enjoy greater room for development. We will continue to give full play to our unique role as a connecting platform in 'going global and attracting foreign investment' for the country, according to the Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu at the official website of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Global Times