Unpaid Leave
Cpt. Underpants:
What you are alluding to is really an upcoming layoff or furlough of pilots at CX. They are trying to look for volunteers for this “unpaid leave”, and if none or few sign up for it, they will do it the hard way (involuntary). Of course, generally when they look for volunteers such as this, very little if any will volunteer so they end up doing the hard way anyway.
I can say this, from my sources at CX (and these are REALLY high up individuals); CX’s long term goal is to phase out what some of you refer to as the “A scales” and gradually make all pilots receive the same benefits like the iCadets CX is currently recruiting (i.e. no housing allowance). It is really one of their strategies for reducing costs to compete in what has been a very competitive and difficult environment. Overall, these “iCadets” recruitment should continue, it is the highly paid expats that should worry.
By they way, I am not or not trying to become an iCadet, Just a person with insider information.