Cutting housing would be one of the worst mistakes this company could make , there are any number of pilots who would no longer be able to live in Hong Kong and would be forced to look for alternative jobs .
Even for the new recruits living with HKPA , it's okay for a while but try raising a family . HK is a very expensive city to live in . So I would venture an opinion that housing will not be touched .
As to what the company is trying to do and has been since 1998 is piss off their pilot workforce . Ed Rottington produced charts about costs per kilo and how much lower SIA was in comparison and how it was all doom and gloom . We and the company were going to go under unless we reduced our costs . Well here we are 19 years later still singing the same tune , if the fuel hedging dept hadn't screwed up monumentally CX would be making money hand over fist . Yet no one has been held responsible , which makes me very suspicious that a CX company was on the other side of the fuel hedging debacle so the management really isn't upset about it .
To reduce costs CX has cut the premium product , cut the food quality , cut the loyalty program and thereby encouraged our passengers to try other airlines , probably to never return .
Amazingly short sighted policy but who am I to criticize