Agreed
Understatement of the year !
I think (IMHO) that CX will try and keep the two seperate. Similar to how they have set up Air Hong Kong. Similar in that by keeping the two seperate they can realise cost savings on crewing. The Air Hong Kong pilots that did come over came at the bottom.
The other problem is, they slowly erode KA's contract (more effectively than ours that is) then they could take over some of CX routes with the lower cost subsidiary. As long as they use the KA brand (and KA colored aircraft) that should not work on the international routes where the CX brand is the main selling point. There is the possibility of KA expansion (or KA pilot group expansion within a segregated CX pilot pool) on the lower contract while CX slows and with it the career progression.
We already have some cross over as a certain manager's spouse is taking a KA base in Australia could ne be a DEFO aus ?
Whatever happens though I think it is gonna get a little messy.
Ciao