CX has played a dangerous hand with the severing of the KA limb, this shutdown was more about contracts and bringing 3000 pilots into compliance. LIFO posed too many problems across airlines for the training and possible bargaining required to down train, change fleet. In order to tackle this they found the smallest workforce and severed it, leaving a trial of blood that would would send fear into 3000 other pilots and force them over onto new contracts.
This was the first bloodletting and in hindsight their most expensive.
The remaining cuts are going to get cheaper and cheaper, now we shall see a bounce in the share price as CX move onto KA routes and start to increase flight numbers and passenger carriage. They will become stock market darlings as analysts put a buy recommendation on the airline. Destroy one brand that cost 6 billion, but watch the value of Swire's holding exceed that in the next 12-24 moths.
The government will see a return on their investment as their holding becomes more valuable and the reset on labour force contracts will put CX ahead of ANY airline in the region. Watch a privately held business get the HKSAR government lobbying for access back onto the valuable KA routes. Appointing a local CEO will become less significant when you have the HKSAR CE on your board.
The airbus fleet will be the big winner within CX as all the KA routes will be filled with this type. Statistics will be skewed, showing higher utilisation rates with the aircraft not stored. Stored aircraft are effectively wiped from fleet numbers. After several months the next round of bloodletting commences, targeting fleets, not seats.
This is the new dawn for CX and their industrial relations, employee engagement is just a buzz word used by consultants.
The only value they see is in the number 293, HK stock quote.
Truly a sad ending.
Last edited by KABOY; 27th Oct 2020 at 08:58.