CX can crew its flights out of HKG, it does not "need" bases, just look at how quickly they closed the AMS base this year.
It was my understanding that those pilots are being placed at other bases in Europe. Is that not correct? Has any of those been forced to go to HK?
I would think that basings around the world would give added flexibility to some extend. If it wasn't because of flexibility and only in order to save money (expat benefits), couldn't they have settled for a lot fewer bases outside of HK?
The last round of DEFOs earned the DEFOs a bad name amongst the trainers, they were less than impressed with the standard that a lot of the people had. Needless to say, a number of them no longer work at CX after being chopped.
CX have been hiring DEFOs for a long time. Just because they had bad luck with the latest doesn't mean the concept is flawed. Maybe they just lowered the bar too much.
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Does flying as SO for 4-5 years make you a better pilot? Surely you will see a lot of stuff and and get a good feel for how CX likes to run things. But how about your own pilot skills and ability to make decisions?
Just a question:
If CX have open FO slots at a BASE and not enough FOs/upgradable SOs with legal right to work there - Does that give them the right to hire DEFO without asseessing SOs without right to work there?