NC, while I admire your optimism, speculation and Einstein numbers, there is a line between the real world and lah lah land.
What Drc40 and others said, CXi ‘s gripes started a few years ago already, long before the china scamdemic, it’s all political and pressure from LCCs.
HKIA as a hub worked fine for CXi over the past decades, but that ship has sailed too. Direct flights from the mainland to wherever is the future.
Looking at who will be flying CXi in the future, if 40% of expats (in a recent survey) are talking about leaving the HKSAR - national security law concerns, that only leaves us with some cheap local tours around the “Rice Bowl” and that’s where HK Expresso comes in handy. But hold on: GBA (and possibly more players) will debut soon, so there goes that monopoly plan up in smoke too - again the pressure from LCCs.
Even a company like PAL has seen the writing on the wall, and started a major restructuring plan.
Philippine Airlines Seeks To Cut Boeing 777 And Airbus A350 Fleet
https://simpleflying.com/philippine-...es-cuts-fleet/
What CXi needs to do is to grow HKE, get rid of all 777s, cancel future orders, keep a few “A50s” to serve a handful of money making cities, and expand the cargo ops. With my primary school math: Fewer aeroplanes = fewer pilots.
The few changes CXi “management” have done until now, it might already be too little - too late.