You might want to read this thread and their website before going to stage 2/3. One thing they will look for at the interview is knowledge about what you're getting yourself into in terms of CTC and the airline industry...
Good luck with the application!
Robbo,
As Kerosine points out...the credit crunch is the majority of the decision but HSBC also mentioned other reasons that they didn't disclose. As far as I'm aware (could be wrong) it doesn't really affect those that have the loan already. Only the economy (interest rates) will affect the loan rather than the relationship between HSBC and CTC.