The head of Cathay Pacific said on Friday that he is confident the airline will be able to hire up to 300 people from the mainland this year, as the carrier held its first recruitment drive across the border.

The SAR’s flag carrier has been accepting applications from mainland candidates since July, to cope with an increase in the number of Putonghua-speaking passengers.

Speaking to reporters in Shenzhen on the first day of the recruitment exercise, CEO Ronald Lam said he is encouraged by the overwhelming response.

"We’ve received more than 2,000 applications. We’ve selected around 600 of them to come down to Shenzhen to get interviewed," he said.

"Judging from my quick chat with my colleagues here, I think they’re very encouraged by the quality of the candidates they have interviewed. So I am very confident that we’ll be able to meet that target in the coming days.”

Lam said he expects the company to recruit up to 2,000 mainland staff by 2025.

Some of the interviewees told RTHK that they believe they’re the perfect candidate for the airline.

“I think compared to other candidates today so far, my spoken English is better than most of them and I used to work for foreign airlines as well," she said.

John, a candidate from Shanghai who used to work for the airline’s former subsidiary, Cathay Dragon, said he’s happy to have a second chance after the carrier shut down.

“In 2020, it was a hard time for every Cathay Dragon staff [member], including me… so when I heard about the recruitment news, I was very happy.”

The company said those offered a position will be based in Hong Kong, and their salary could go up to HK$20,000 with extra housing and transport allowance.