I realise that some of you are worried about the path forward but can we please put a stop the wild baseless speculation:
1. Traffic rights are tied to the AOC. As such Dragon cannot fly / take over the long haul flying to your beloved LAX/YVR/LHR. Given this, the commands muted in the pipeline stay at CX.
2. Dragon does not have the capability to ramp up and operate the huge network in anywhere close to the near term.
3. Dragon trainers are struggling to do their own in house training so have little capability to do a major portion of ours. The two JFO upgrades muted are symbolic only and designed to put the wind up you. Clearly this is working but those of you who are hysterically reacting to this proposal are only doing the company's bidding !
4. The freighter fleet (yes with only 2 pax 747's then you may as well call it such) contributes on average 30 % of the revenue of the airline. Do you really think that the DFO would have gone to the big boys and said "hey, I have an idea ! Let's wet lease out freighters and all their contracts to a third party". If an employee of mine suggested such I would give them their notice and tell them to start interviewing their replacement. Further, were I crazy enough to entertain this "stoopid" idea:
(I) where would I get the qualified crews from? (China Southern are not paying big bucks now to garner the best of the best, they are doing so because there is a shortage of supply)
(Ii) who is going to train them (we are going around in circles here)
(Iii) See above, traffic rights are tied to the Airlines AOC. Do you honestly thing the FAA are going to say no problemo to some new outfit operating CX blah blah to Kennedy without asking questions, not to mention every other European state doing the same?
Miss DFO was in the fleet offices canvassing the the desk warmers 2 weeks back asking what needed to be done to get the ball moving. No doubt they are pissed off that the pilot body has not capitulated and have decided something else is needed to break the impasse but anyone thinking it will be revolutionary is clearly over reacting which coincidently is exactly what she wants you to do.
For those of you who are new to the game (no disrespect meant) then have a chat to some of the old timers and air your concerns. I am sure they will be put to bed with a quiet word.
Most importantly keep your powder dry.
DO NOT OVER REACT for this is precisely what they want.