I think this is not repeated enough:
All of this drama is just grandstanding to distract from the FACT that this airline would have made close to US$ 1 BILLION in profits if it wasn't for a disastrous fuel hedging decision.
But management has to save face. So they blame competition, reducing yields, increasing operating costs, etc. Which are all true to an extent, but not enough to prevent this airline from making a profit, much less to excuse losing that much.
Any airline which faces difficulties will start looking to lean the operations side. If their woes were truly of a systemic nature, they would be deferring airplanes, closing down money-losing routes, consolidating frequencies on others, laying off operational staff (pilots and F/As) which cost a lot more than ground staff by their sheer numbers.
CX might be claiming they've encountered a bit of headwind, but the reality is that they are STILL receiving airplanes on schedule, they are STILL opening new routes, they are NOT laying off any of the operational staff since the airplanes are still flying and the punters are still coming, in fact they will be HIRING over 1000 flight attendants next year, and pilot recruitment continues unabated.
So far, all they've done is coming up with a corporate feel-good mumbo-jumbo that's very short on substance, and laying off office workers.
They might try as hard as they can to cover their massive f*ckup under lame excuses of increased competition, but the numbers and the facts do not lie.
This business would still be making money hand over fist if it wasn't for tragically poor decision from the upper levels of management, who don't seem to be willing to admit to any fault given how little the words 'fuel hedging' appear on any of the official communications, despite the fact that it is, by the very basic law of arithmetic, and by far the biggest burden on this airline.
In short, the employees and the shareholders are all paying for a massive management f*ckup despite what they are frantically trying to hide under a thick layer or bullcrap.
Standby for bonuses all around.