HK Express punished
 

Hong Kong Express banned from adding new aircraft, flights or destinations | South China Morning Post

That's a tad harsh...

How many first class shopping trips to Europe did that cost CX?

Every single pilot in CX needs to ponder the lesson this is shouting out to us. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that we can ALL collectively bring our management to this same dire destination. You know what you have to do. Each and every one of us. It is the holiday season. What better time do we have to send the critical message that needs sending? Otherwise, please....don't complain about a single term or condition of your employment come the New Year.

Punishment
 

The result of years of bad management from just two people.

Interesting additional detail contained in today's Standard newspaper. My bolding.

Hong Kong Express Airways has been banned from increasing destinations, putting on additional flights, or acquiring new aircraft for the time being, the Civil Aviation Department said yesterday.
The department said it had accepted the airline's report regarding the cancellation of multiple flights during Golden Week.
The airline has been granted another five-year operating license.
The report said the cancellations stemmed from the successive resignations of HK Express' safety and emergency and procedure trainers within a short period, while newly recruited trainers had yet to secure the necessary approvals from the authority.
"HK Express' report demonstrated that, after filling the vacancies and increasing the number of safety and emergency procedure trainers, as well as carrying out a leadership reshuffle, HK Express has regained its ability to provide steady flight services," a CAD spokesman said.
The report revealed "the poor internal management and corporate governance, a lack of effective internal communications, under-estimation of the impact of the incident, and insufficient sensitivity to public concern."
The CAD said HK Express had to start "pooling resources together to optimize its internal management and corporate governance" in order to avoid a recurrence of similar incidents.
HK Express will only be allowed to operate new destinations and increase flights when the department is satisfied with the implementation of various rectification measures effectively, the spokesman said.
During Golden Week, the budget airline canceled 18 flights between Hong Kong and three cities in Japan and South Korea.
There was an extended period of holidays during the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, with 2,000 passengers affected.
HK Express has promised to strengthen internal governance.

Tell us what you smelling FOI ?

So, an airline is punished for doing the right thing?

- realise they will be short of qualified crew
- Cancel flights in advance & reprotect/ refund accordingly.

Cathay routinely cancels flights in advance due lack of demand/ merges flights close to departure.

And yes, if CX/KA were to have similar cancellations, CAD would look rather foolish if they didn't follow same punishment

CAD requires SEP instructor to be in-house trained and qualifed which finishes with 2 sessions with the in-house qualified instructor supervising. One very experienced ex CX SEP trainer who was made redundant few months back was supposed to finish the course but the resigned in-house instructors pulled a last minute sickie and never showed up again...