Cathay Pacific Airway's New Breed Of Leaders

CEBU, Philippines - We first encountered Ed Higgs, CX Country Manager for the Philippines and Camilla Taylor, CX new Cebu Port Manager during an afternoon tea gathering hosted by Cathay Pacific Airways Cebu at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino. The reason for such was to warmly welcome Camilla and bid farewell to Vickie Yue, outgoing Cebu Port Manager.

Recently, Ed, who is Manila-based, was in town for various business concerns. In between busy work schedules and other pressing deadlines, we managed to sit down with him and Camilla to talk about what Cathay Pacific has in store for its travelers, both in Cebu and nationwide. Below are excerpts of our conversation:

Leah Sia (LS): What are your plans for Cathay Pacific for the rest of 2009? For next year?

Camilla Taylor (CT): I’ll be talking about Cebu operations since Ed will discuss nationwide operations. I arrived about a month ago in Cebu with several projects handed to me. These are difficult times for airlines. However, despite the lack of demand, we have to maintain our quality of service, and build loyal customers through the Cathay Pacific frequent flyer programme Asia Miles and our loyalty programme, The Marco Polo Club; Cebu, by the way, has a high volume of Marco Polo Club members and in these times, loyalty is more important than ever. We also have a tie up with American Express, wherein passengers earn air miles every time they spend. For our long haul market such as the United States and Canada, we are pushing for promos and familiarization trips to Vancouver and San Francisco. We are also adding Jeddah to our network this October and we are promoting Dubai as a leisure market after the recent famtrip. Our sister airline, DragonAir, launched flights to Guangzhou which started last September 14 and by December 3, Cathay Pacific will codeshare with Air Pacific on twice weekly flights to Nadi, Fiji from Hong Kong. Though we are developing new markets, we are keen to keeping our existing network.

Ed Higgs (EH): 2009 is indeed a difficult year for all given the economic crises. We needed to take some prudent measures to safeguard cash in order to survive another day. For example, we’ve reduced our Hong Kong to Sydney schedule, from four to three flights. The main objective is survival. However, we are committed to continue providing our customers with premium products and excellent services. This means maintaining our network, continuous investment in our inflight products (by end of this year, all our longhaul flights will have the new First, new Business and new Economy class products) and ground products like lounge and online facilities. During a recent customer survey feedback, the results were very positive. Our first class is considered best in the world by Skytrax (an official world airline rating program). This year, we’ve had a perfect storm with the collapse in the business class traffic and intense competition in the economy so by 2010, hopefully things will improve. We are very proud of the fact that despite everything, we’ve kept the network and the team together.

LS: What’s new or the latest in Cathay Pacific for the traveling public to look out for or expect?

CT: We just recently announced that Cathay Pacific will be code sharing to Fiji three times a week from Hong Kong by December. In keeping with service level commitments, our aircrafts are being fitted with new seats for the long to medium haul flights for economy, business and 1st class; new entertainment systems such as movies, videos and CDs with about 888 selections in all to choose from.

EH: Aside from having all our long haul flights retrofitted with the new First, new Business and new Economy class products, our passengers can expect more from Cathay Pacific’s online facilities which will make their journey – we consider it a journey, not just a flight – more convenient and as seamless as possible. The customer’s experience starts with the booking or travel agent and with our e-journey initiatives, we hope people get online more to reduce the hassle of traveling. In order to do this, we have features such as online check-in, mobile check-in (for people who are always on the go), self-print boarding pass and Manage My Booking functionality where passengers can view their flight and special request status such as seat preference or special meals.

LS: What’s a typical work day for you?

CT: The first month at work is never typical. I drive from my home to our Ayala office everyday. Once I’m in the office, I check my email and touch base regularly with Connie Cimafranca (Passenger & Sales Service Supervisor of Cathay Pacific Airways Cebu) and the rest of the sales team. I have airport meetings twice a week and tag along during sales calls to discuss issues and get feedback on promos and various other concerns. I also meet with our cargo agents and plane engineers for their inputs and concerns.

EH: In Manila, we have the reservations and ticketing office with about 40 people. I like to spend time walking around the office, assessing the situation, meeting customers, or going to the airport to get customer feedback. There’s really no typical day for me – I like to spend different times at different customer touch points and I get to travel a lot for familiarization tours. In addition, my role as Country Manager is a liaison role between head office and the Philippines, and to represent the pulse of the situation here. Our vision is to be the best airline and we make sure our external and internal processes are customer focused, with a strong culture of continuous improvement. We also like to grow a winning team, and the Philippine type of service our team members extend is quite extraordinary.

LS: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, such as your education or previous work experiences?

CT: I graduated from the University of Oxford, St. Hilda’s College in 2004, majoring in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. My sister was born in Hong Kong so in 2001, we went on a holiday trip there for the first time. In 2004, I applied with John Swire & Sons Ltd in the UK and was seconded to Cathay Pacific Airways Limited in Hong Kong. Prior to my Cebu posting, I was the Inflight Sales and Logistics Manager in the Cathay Pacific duty-free program in Hong Kong. I consider Asia as my second home.

EH: Like Camilla, I also attended British universities and was recruited by Swire in the UK for a job in Hong Kong. When I started, I was placed in the management program of Cathay Pacific and I’ve been working for this company for 11 years now. I was assigned in South Africa before being posted to the Philippines, also as Country Manager. I’ve been based in Manila for a year.

LS: What is your favorite place in Asia or abroad, and why?

CT: That would be Hong Kong, where you get to see different sides to the place, you see markets, Kowloon, and you can just go around and see the mountains, the beaches… Abroad would be South Africa, it’s a good destination to be able to do so many things in one place. I also like Dubai and Oman for their different culture.

EH: I do love Hong Kong, it’s nice to be so close to it or be able to visit for a weekend break. And I will always love Bali, Indonesia. It holds a special place in my heart; in fact, Seminyak in Indonesia is my idea of a good holiday. They have good restaurants, spas, and a great night life. In the Philippines, I enjoy Tagaytay for a good game of golf, and I hope to go around places such as Palawan and Siargao.

Indeed, with trailblazing young leaders at the helm of Cathay Pacific in the Philippines such as Ed and Camilla to mobilize their team, it’s not surprising for the airline to achieve greater heights and accolades in the years to come.