The only reason SQ was able to go all local is the steady supply of Singapore Airforce pilots. Hong Kong not only doesn't have an airforce, but is a demographic time bomb. It has one of the lowest birth rates in the world; well below replacement level, and mostly maintains the population with poorly educated mainlanders. Not a good recipe for a local staffing solution.]
Mr Claus,
Singapore does have an Air Force but that isn't where the majority of SIA local pilots come from. The ex air force pilots are seriously disadvantaged when joining SQ as they have to start from scratch building heavy jet sectors (a requirement for command in SQ) and are much older when they join than the major source of local SQ recruitment - cadets from Malaysia. The majority of local pilots in SIA were originally from Malaysia but over the years become
PR's and then citizens. I guess the equivalent for CX would be specifically recruiting cadets from over the border in addition to other international cadets. Incidentally Singapore probably has a bigger demographic problem than HKG and takes in expats from all over Asia to expand their workforce at all levels and thus eventually the local population as the
PR/citizen route is followed.
SIA were never very entusiastic about bases and seemed to roster in and out of bases in a way which deliberatlety made them look inefficient. For example LHR based captains would arrive in SIN enjoy a few days in the Conrad before operating to SYD and back before operating home to London. Lots of wasted days and expensive hotel nights compared to the CX model of min rest in the Headland before returning to base. Plus on many occassions a SIN based pilot would PX back from AUS in order that a based captain could operate the sector - not very efficient to say the least. Perhaps now with the A330 doing lots of OZ sectors they can run bases a bit more efficiently, if they have them again, but I don't know.
Also the widely held view that the powers didn't like bases because they lost a certain amount of control over the crew probably had some truth in it.