| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| Few major airlines in the world were hit by the Covid pandemic as hard as Cathay Pacific, the flagship carrier of Hong Kong, or have labored so mightily to recover from it. Its business was decimated by some of the industry’s most expansive flight bans and quarantine requirements. And the pandemic wasn’t the start of Cathay’s troubles. | 世界上很少有大型航司像香港的载旗航空国泰那样受到疫情的严重打击，也很少有航司像国泰航空那样为了恢复付出如此巨大的努力。该公司的业务因一些业内最广泛的飞行禁令和隔离要求而遭受重创。而新冠大流行并不是国泰航空麻烦的开始。 |
| In 2019, when Hong Kong was convulsed by pro-democracy protests, Cathay Pacific was caught in the crossfire with Beijing. Flights were canceled or delayed by airport sit-ins involving thousands of demonstrators, among them employees of the airline, Cathay Pacific. Chinese officials threatened to bar crew members who joined the protests, or even voiced support for them, from flying into China. | 2019年香港因民主抗议活动而剧烈动荡时，国泰航空被卷入这场与北京的争端。由于数以千计示威者在机场静坐抗议，导致航班取消或延误，示威者中也包括国泰航空的员工。中国官员威胁要禁止参加抗议活动的机组人员，甚至是那些仅表示支持抗议的机组人员飞往中国。 |
| Turmoil grew inside Cathay Pacific. The airline’s chief executive and chairman both resigned, and new leaders began cracking down on anything employees said or posted on social media that could anger China. | 国泰航空内部的动荡日益加剧。该航空公司的行政总裁和董事局主席双双辞职，新的领导人开始打击员工在社交媒体上发表任何可能激怒中国的言论或帖子。 |
| In 2020, as the pandemic grounded its business, Cathay shuttered its regional division, Cathay Dragon. It parked 70 unused planes in the desert in Alice Springs, Australia, and fired 5,300 employees based in Hong Kong. As the city lengthened the mandatory quarantines, some aircrew had to enter three- to four-week-long “closed loop” work shifts, enduring weeks away from home that were devastating to employee morale. | 2020年，由于疫情导致停飞，国泰航空关闭了子公司国泰港龙航空。国泰在澳大利亚爱丽丝泉的沙漠中存放了70架飞机，并解雇了5300名驻香港的员工。随着香港延长强制隔离时间，一些机组人员不得不进入为期三到四周的“闭环”轮班，忍受数周不能回家的生活，这对员工的士气是极大的打击。 |
| Today Cathay Pacific is still struggling to hire enough pilots, flight crew and other staffers to compete with other airlines. Its rivals “have emerged leaner, fitter and eager to take customers away from us,” the company’s chief executive, Ronald Lam, said in a video message to employees in January, trying to rally them around a plan “to survive and thrive.” Cathay Pacific climbed back to 50 percent of its prepandemic flight capacity only in March. | 如今，国泰航空仍在想方设法招聘足够的飞行员、机组人员和其他员工，以便与其他航司竞争。该公司首席执行官林绍波今年1月在发给员工的一段视频信息中说，其竞争对手“变得更精简、更健康，急于从我们这里抢走客户”，他试图让大家围绕一项“生存和发展”的计划团结起来。直到3月，国泰航空的客运运力才恢复到疫情前的50%。 |
| The problems continue. Last week, in an internal memo, Mr. Lam informed Cathay Pacific’s staff that three employees had been fired after an audio recording went viral of cabin crew members ridiculing a passenger’s English. Mr. Lam said the employees had caused “significant damage to the image of Hong Kong and Cathay.” | 但问题依然存在。上周，林绍波在一份内部备忘录中告诉国泰航空的员工，一段机组人员嘲笑一名乘客英语水平的录音在网上疯传，三名员工因此被解雇。林绍波说，这些员工“严重损害了香港和国泰航空的形象”。 |
| The episode was a reminder of the delicate task Cathay Pacific faces in navigating its relationship with China. China is a vital market for the airline, but its economy is still recovering after being closed off to Hong Kong and the rest of the world for nearly three years. Before the pandemic, Cathay flew from Hong Kong to 119 places in 35 countries, including 26 destinations in China. Its convenient flight times from cities across China allowed passengers to change planes in Hong Kong by night and arrive in the United States or Europe by morning or early afternoon. | 这件事提醒人们，在处理同中国的关系时，国泰航空面临着棘手的任务。中国是该航司的一个重要市场，但在对香港和世界其他地区关闭近三年之后，中国经济仍在复苏。疫情暴发前，国泰航空从香港飞往35个国家的119个地方，其中包括中国的26个目的地。从中国各城市出发的航班时间方便了乘客夜间在香港转机，并在上午或下午早些时候抵达美国或欧洲。 |
| At the height of the Omicron outbreak in January 2022, when the Hong Kong government banned inbound flights from countries including the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, the airline was flying at only 2 percent of its passenger flight capacity. | 在2022年1月奥密克戎疫情最严重的时候，香港政府禁止来自美国、澳大利亚和英国等国家的航班入境，当时国泰仅发挥了2%的客运能力。 |
| In a statement, the airline said it aimed to return to 70 percent flight capacity and 80 destinations by the end of 2023, with 160 flights per week to 16 airports in mainland China. | 该航空公司在一份声明中表示，其目标是到2023年底恢复70%的客运航班运力和80个目的地，每周有160个航班飞往中国大陆的16个机场。 |
| Even after Hong Kong removed its Covid-related rules and quarantine requirements, Beijing’s determined influence over the former British colony still threatens the reputation it has enjoyed for decades as an attractive, freewheeling destination for business. | 即使在香港取消了与新冠相关的规定和隔离要求之后，北京对这个前英国殖民地的坚定影响仍威胁着香港几十年来作为一个有吸引力的自由商业目的地的声誉。 |
| Just as Hong Kong was the world’s portal to China, Cathay Pacific was a vanguard in connecting emerging economies in Asia to New York, London and Paris. Founded in 1946, it was one of the city’s most important brands, known for its punctuality and premium service. The airport’s third runway opened last year to accommodate Beijing’s plans to integrate Hong Kong with Macau and nine cities in the Guangdong province into a tech hub known as the Greater Bay Area. | 正如香港是世界通往中国的门户一样，国泰航空是连接亚洲新兴经济体与纽约、伦敦和巴黎的先锋。它成立于1946年，是香港最重要的品牌之一，以准时和优质服务而闻名。该机场的第三条跑道于去年启用，以适应北京将香港、澳门和广东省的九个城市整合成名为大湾区的科技中心的计划。 |
| Cathay Pacific said it doesn’t expect a full recovery until next year. Its most immediate challenges are restoring its pilot and cabin crew head count, and increasing flight capacity. | 国泰航空表示预计明年才会完全复苏。该公司最紧迫的挑战是恢复飞行员和机组人员的数量，并增加航班运力。 |
| To cut costs, Cathay has slashed pilot base salaries by about 40 percent, angering many members of its aircrew. In January, in response to the airline’s use of fewer flight attendants per flight and reduction of recovery time between long flights, the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union introduced a “work to rule” campaign: discouraging flight attendants from performing duties beyond the scope of company guidelines. Officials with Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said in May that they had observed a trend of lower taxiing speeds among Cathay pilots after the airline’s new pay structure in effect gave them a disincentive from completing flights earlier than scheduled. | 为了削减成本，国泰航空将飞行员的基本工资削减了约40%，这激怒了许多机组人员。今年1月，国泰航空减少了每个航班上的空乘人员数量，并缩短了长途航班之间的恢复时间，为此，国泰航空公司空中服务员工会发起了“按章工作”活动：劝阻空乘人员执行超出公司准则范围的任务。香港机场管理局的官员今年5月表示，他们注意到国泰航空的飞行员中存在降低滑行速度的趋势，这是因为该公司新的薪酬结构实际上挫伤了他们提前完成航班的积极性。 |
| “They said we’ve got to save cash, but there’s not much point saving cash if you haven’t got an airline at the end of it,” said Paul Weatherilt, chairman of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, a pilot’s union, and a Cathay Pacific pilot for nearly three decades. “And that’s sort of the position they’re in now. They have half the airline.” | “他们说我们得过紧日子，但如果你连公司都没了，省钱就没有多大意义，”飞行员工会香港航空机组人员协会主席保罗·韦瑟里特说，他在国泰航空担任了近30年的飞行员。“这就是他们现在的处境。公司只剩一半了。” |
| Before 2019, the airline had 3,840 pilots. Since then, 1,900 have resigned, according to the Aircrew Officers Association. The number of captains, the most senior pilots, has been halved. And while Cathay Pacific rehired dozens of pilots from the shuttered Cathay Dragon division in 2021 and 2022, many had to take pay cuts and demotions when accepting their offers. The lack of flights during the pandemic slowed the development of the training that first and second officers need to become captains. Senior pilot trainers and flight simulator instructors quit. | 在2019年之前，该航空公司有3840名飞行员。据航空机组人员协会称，自那以来，已有1900人辞职。机长，也就是最高级的飞行员的数量已经减少了一半。虽然国泰航空在2021年和2022年从关闭的国泰港龙部门重新雇佣了数十名飞行员，但许多人在接受聘用时不得不减薪和降职。疫情期间缺少飞行，拖累了第一副驾驶和第二副驾驶成为机长所需的培训进程。许多高级飞行员教官和飞行模拟器教官辞职。 |
| Despite its struggles, some industry analysts are optimistic that Cathay Pacific will recover. The company reported an annual profit last year, its first since 2019. Its flights are about 90 percent full, which is better than before the pandemic, and high ticket prices have helped revenue. During the pandemic, business from cargo flights kept the airline afloat. | 尽管处境艰难，但一些行业分析师对国泰航空将复苏持乐观态度。该公司去年报告了自2019年以来的首次年度利润。该公司的航班上座率约为90%，这比疫情前的情况要好，高票价也有助于提高收入。疫情期间，货运航班的业务维持了该航空公司的运营。 |
| But no market is as important now to Cathay Pacific, or as potentially fraught, as China. | 但对于国泰航空来说，没有一个市场比中国更重要，同时又可能带来如此多的困扰。 |
| The most recent trouble stemmed from the complaint of a passenger who had flown on May 21 from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to Hong Kong and posted a recording of flight attendants overheard in the galley laughing about a passenger who had apparently requested a “carpet” instead of a blanket. “If you cannot say ‘blanket’ in English, you cannot have it,” one flight attendant said in the recording. | 最近的麻烦源于5月21日从中国西南城市成都飞往香港的一名乘客的投诉，这位乘客上传了一段录音，其中可以听到空乘人员在厨房嘲笑一名乘客，后者似乎在要毯子时说成了“地毯”。“如果你不会用英语说‘毯子’，你就没毯子用，”一名空乘人员在录音中说。 |
| The recording dominated discussions on Chinese social media, with people posting about what they saw as a history of snubs by the airline’s flight attendants against mainland passengers. Xinhua, a state media agency criticized the airline for “arrogance,” “bad service” and a lack of sincerity. “If it doesn’t correct its old habits, Cathay Pacific won’t fly far,” read the headline of an editorial article. | 这段录音在中国社交媒体上引发了热议，人们纷纷发帖，谈论他们认为国泰航空的空乘人员冷落大陆乘客的往事。官方媒体新华社批评该航空公司“傲慢”“服务差”、缺乏诚意。一篇社论的标题写道《老毛病老不改，国泰航空飞不远》。 |
| Hong Kong’s top government leader, John Lee, joined the rebukes. “The words and deeds of the flight attendants hurt the feelings of compatriots in Hong Kong and the mainland and destroyed Hong Kong’s traditional culture and values of respect and courtesy,” he said in a Facebook post. | 香港特首李家超也加入了谴责行列。“涉事空中服务员的言行伤害了香港和内地同胞的感情，破坏了香港一向的尊重、有礼的文化和价值观，”他在Facebook上写道。 |
| Cathay Pacific apologized on Weibo on Tuesday and said that the airline would open an investigation. By Wednesday, three flight attendants had been fired. | 国泰航空周二在微博上道歉，并表示将展开调查。截至周三，三名空乘人员被解雇。 |
| “We had to respond and act swiftly, which was necessary to protect the interest of the company and in turn our people overall,” Mr. Lam wrote in the internal memo to employees on Thursday. | “我们必须迅速做出反应，采取行动，这对保护公司乃至全体员工的利益是必要的，”林绍波在周四发给员工的内部备忘录中写道。 |
| He added that the remarks were a blow to the airline’s reputation. “Whilst the incident has caused a setback to our rebuild journey, let’s embrace it as a valuable lesson,” he wrote. | 他还说，这些言论对该航空公司的声誉是一个打击。“虽然这一事件给我们的重建之旅带来了挫折，但让我们把它当作一个宝贵的教训，”他写道。 |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们