CX says goodbye, hello to country GM

Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) hosted farewell cocktails at the Turf Room of the Manila Polo Club for its outgoing Philippines country manager Martin Xu, who has been in the Philippines for three years. The occasion also served as a welcome party for incoming country manager Alan Lui.

Xu started out as CX management trainee and steadily rose up the ranks, getting promoted to marketing general manager in three months. He subsequently served as regional manager for Japan and Korea, became manager for in-flight services, commercial sales, East Indonesia manager and international affairs manager prior to his appointment as Philippines country manager.

Lui, who graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Columbia University in New York, has been with the Cathay Pacific Group for 10 years, having served as manager and chief representative in Guangzhou and passenger sales manager in Hong Kong.  

CX was recently named as the World’s Best Airline in the recent Skytrax World Airline Awards held in the UK. This is the fourth time that CX has received the prestigious award — so far the only airline to achieve such a feat having received the top award in 2003, 2005 and 2009. The latest Skytrax awards were based on surveys from almost 20 million airline passengers from more than 160 countries who were asked to vote for their favorite airline and best travel experience.

Cathay has one of the world’s most modern fleets, investing in some 90 new aircraft currently on order estimated at HK$220 billion. The airline has a total international workforce of 21,000 deployed in 46 countries and territories, offering almost 190 destinations. CX executives also disclosed that they will be hiring around 2,200 more people this year.

Photos by Ramon Joseph J. Ruiz