Cathay Pacific was established in 1946 and is now the largest airline company in Hong Kong. It operates both passenger services and cargo services and operates in more than 30 countries throughout Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America to more than 80 destinations. From Hong Kong, where its headquarter is based, Cathay operates 36 of their destinations in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore the general environment in especially Hong Kong and the rest of the Asia-pacific region has an effect on Cathay Pacifics business procedure. The general environment is composed of factors that can have dramatic effects on a firm’s strategy and events and changes in the general environment can he hard to predict and even harder to control (Dess et al. 2012, p.87).
The demographic segment of the general environment is the genetic and observable characteristics of a population (Dess et al. 2012, p. 87). Hong Kong’s population was in 2009 7.03 million. About 95% of the population are of Chinese descent. The majority are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. The remaining 5% of the population is non-ethnic Chinese people and consists of a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis, Neplaese, Vietnamese refugees, Europeans, Americans, Japanese and Koreans. This means that the population of Hong Kong consists of many different nationalities and in addition Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
This means that Hong Kong is a very international city witch indicates that the market for airplanes is big. The diversified nationalities in the city means that more people transfer because the often have to visit families and friends in their home countries and visa versa.
Even though the official language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, English is also an official language. This means that 39,4% of the populations speaks English as their second