A SIMPLE, but very crucial, point to make about the aviation industry is that you don't get good service without good people.

Running an airline is a very capital-intensive business - at Cathay Pacific we've spent huge amounts of money on new aircraft and invested billions of dollars in Hong Kong's aviation infrastructure - but at the end of the day what most of our passengers remember us for is the service they receive.

People are at the heart of our organisation and their numbers are growing all the time. The Cathay Pacific Group employs in the region of 25,000 staff around the world, including those working for our sister airline Dragonair. Those numbers continue to grow as the airline goes through a phase of significant expansion.

But it's not just about numbers. International airlines need to employ an incredible diversity of people in terms of both the jobs they do and their nationalities and background. The challenge is to build a seemingly disparate group into a unified team that can work together for the collective good of the company.

Undoubtedly the most fundamental element of creating a winning team is to build a strong, successful company - not the easiest of tasks in this most fickle of industries.

The natural state of the airline industry is 'crisis'. Occasionally this crisis is interrupted by short outbreaks of unexpected calm. During these periods everyone goes mad with optimism and they usually order lots of aircraft - as we and other airlines are doing now - which sets the scene for a return to normal. That is, the next crisis.

I could go on at length about the unique challenges airlines face on a day-to-day basis: aero-political issues, government intervention, the lack of a level-playing field, environmental concerns - it's an ever-increasing list. But the ongoing challenges of the industry have, in many ways, driven the necessity to build a loyal, dedicated team that can deliver on all fronts.

At Cathay Pacific, the depth of this loyalty and dedication was brought sharply into focus four years ago when our airline suffered the biggest and most rapid downturn in its history following the outbreak of Sars. Within a matter of weeks we had slashed back our services, grounded many of our aircraft and were quickly on the brink of financial ruin.

Many airlines and other businesses used the crisis as an opportunity to cut staff numbers. We decided on a totally different strategy - to keep the team together for as long as we could. Why get rid of good people who had already weathered many hard times, when you were going to need all their help and experience in the rebuilding process?

We explained clearly to our people just how bad the crisis was, and how we needed their help. We asked all our staff across the world to take voluntary unpaid leave and the response was astonishing: 99.9 per cent of staff acknowledged the dire straits we were in and agreed to help us out. That was a show of true commitment.

What happened next was that things started to improve and by the end of the year we actually paid back the money - so everyone just got an extra three weeks leave in 2003. Next time we have to ask, how do you think they will react?

The point is that loyalty and commitment is very much a two-way street. A company cannot expect its staff to give 100 per cent commitment if it doesn't treat them with respect.

No matter what investments we make in aircraft and the fittings, features and amenities in the cabin, no matter how clever and creative our advertising is; ultimately we win or lose on how well it all fits together as the service experience - the "front line" of which of course is service delivery. Getting that right depends critically on getting the team performance right in a sustainable way.

In recent years all airlines have been under pressure to get their cost bases down if they have any hope of being competitive. At Cathay Pacific we have had considerable success in doing this, which has been crucially important at a time when our main cost, fuel, has effectively doubled in price over the past four years - and is currently soaring to new highs.

One of the main factors in getting costs down has been a huge increase in productivity from our staff. People throughout the company are now working more effectively and smarter for the good of everyone in the airline. This could not have been achieved without a belief from their side that the company has their long-term interests at heart.

People - the Cathay Pacific team - will continue to be at the heart of the airline. A lot of things may change but the foundation of an organisation like ours - one based on a service culture - will always be the people who make it all tick. We've built a winning team which has helped to build us into an award-winning airline: we can't afford to take their support and trust for granted.

The writer is chief executive, Cathay Pacific Airways

Is this article useful to you?