The decision to return to LGW won't be made close to anyone in the London office. I used to get swept up in this sort of thing when I was a kid, for example United flew GLA-IAD with the B767 and Sales and Marketing were 100% supporting the service when rumours began it was being dropped, they said all the right things and were taking bookings for the summer. Almost the very next day the route was canned because the finance team stateside had reviewed the numbers and could serve the Scottish market by using British Midland as a feed via LHR. The aircraft was redeployed. It broke my wee heart but perhaps explains my cynicsim.
Cathay will not lose a significant volume of the current LGW market by serving London out of LHR only. Very few big spenders will take another route to HKG via LGW rather than use BA/CX out of LHR. Hence from a revenue and resource point of view, they'll reinstate LHR x 5 daily then likely review LGW. But that's, IMHO, not "soon" and Cathay are in retreat from Europe, with the double whammy of COVID and the CCP tightening their grip in Hong Kong leading to civil disorder. 6 daily London isn't going to be viable for a while I suspect.
Local sales and marketing will always put the best possible spin to build confidence in market, commerical reality may not agree when head office gets involved.
Last edited by Skipness One Foxtrot; 4th Dec 2020 at 23:55.