What percentage of fleets are owned vs leased is irrelevant to the subject of this thread.
The issue is do they have enough pilots to restore operations according to the goals they set themselves based on market demand and recovery. The answer is no. They have already lowered their goals 3 times, despite the big announcement and advertising campaigns of pilot recruitment drive, at the end of 2021, 7-8 months ago if I remember correctly.
Planning department has come back 3 times already saying "we don't have enough pilots to achieve this..." and they're panicking about this. Recruitmemt has said cannot recruit, no biters. This paragraph isn't my personal 2 cents.
Why do you think Grey Hose the architect of contract cancelation said in a public press interview at Cathay city "perhaps cos18 isn't competitive for everyone"? Because they have no concern about the resignation/retention of pilots?
Ironically if mentally ill hong kong just opened up allowing unrestricted pax & cargo flights back to pre-covid levels, Cathay would be unable to ramp up anywhere near that level because of no pilots. This would be a disaster of a bad news from stock holder point of view. Cathay right now does not want a rapid reopening of hk.
Wether leased or owned aircraft sit idling, these are very expensive assets not being utilized when market supports their use and there isn't enough manpower to support using them. Let's see what the stockholders think of a company unable to use assets when market supports their use.
How many leased vs owned is irrelevant. Another subject thread perhaps
Btw, I totally understand those of you without other options don't want to hear the negative. Its ugly and depressing to face the bad situation you're in without an option if this bad present option comes to an end. It's depressing, I get it. But don't get angry because reality is not what you want to hear. You want to live in a fantasy world, to pretend things are OK. Admitting how bad reality is, well... reality.