Hate to say this, that's normally the way things are done in any country. Citizens and PR's take preference over non PR's or expat workers.

if Air China take over CX then GBA will have to do as it is told. I’d imagine that it would remain as a small regional operator. But who knows?

What about the based guys, told by the company they didn't need visas, thrown under the bus? Aviation, with its stupid seniority, is the worst possible industry to lose a job in.

Exactly. What hypocrites. What else do they expect from them after having to deal with uber flying ace expats talking down to them the whole time, be it here, in the cockpit or just life in general. I do not blame them at all.

Bok, that is a very pilot-centric point of view. (I accept that this is PPRruNe.)

If you are the CFO of a company you do not think in such segmented viewpoints. Staff are staff in whichever department. You may not like them but they do the job. When you can find a cheaper option, you are obliged by the shareholders to go for it and replace them.

As a reply to Dragon P I suspect that all the recent denials about Air China taking over CX are true. Beijing will use the proxy GBA as the instrument to absorb CX into China. Wong Cho-bau, Yau Ying-wah and Hui Hon-Chung (Stanley whose name you may recognise) are well in favour in Beijing.

Would you still let a Mexican airline base in Texas? CX must become a Chinese airline, it may be good for staff it may be bad for staff. From my perspective of business in China, I suspect the latter.

Another pilot-centric rule is to assume China cares what airlines operate in Hong Kong.

That and the ubiquitous believe in invisible threats and conspiracies. I guess staring 20+ years at screens waiting for something to happen that never does makes one paranoid..

On top of all, even if Swire sells, what would change? COS 18 for all?

Welcome to mainland secondments, enjoy your rolling weeks in the mainland. With CX reducing their passenger services, the need will be met in the mainland for those CA domestic flights. The CA accommodation in PEK is quite appealing I here, also those wonderful overnights in Kunming, Chonqing. Truly world cities, I also forgot to mention Shenyang and Wuhan.

Not much change at all, COS 18 will work well with CA.

CX must be a buy now STW, the predators are circling and the share price is at a 12 month low.

Swire have financially engineered the books for as long as they can, it must be time 'His Swireness' Greg Hughes departs the noble horse he has ridden for so long.

Can you share whatever it is your smoking? I could do with the escape from reality.

It’s a two month course to move from a CX 330 to an AHK 330 then two months to move back again. Here’s the thing with massive bureaucracies (and mainland china is even worse than Hong Kong), they don’t survive by tearing down the red tape their survival depends upon. Half the pilots I know, myself included, wouldn’t even pass the three day medical required to be deemed good enough to operate a Chinese registered aircraft.

Ironically, when China makes it seamless to move from one operation to another, it’ll probably be a good place to live. Safe to say that won’t be happening in my lifetime.

What, two month course? I heard it was a few sims

Talk to some ex-KA or NX colleagues, you won't be needing to smoke anything other than the CKG haze in winter.