PPRuNe Forums - Anyone seen this?

All true.
CITIC has been very up front in wishing to move away from subsidary interests & "concentrate of core business".

CITIC have recently sold up shares in other enterprises.

A combined KA/CX in days past could have been seen as a monopoly but with CR/Hainan, HK Express & Oasis this is no longer the case.

I very much doubt that CITICs current moves cannot be directly linked to the current HK/Mainland air talks.
It appears that 'open skies' and 5th freedom rights will be announced in the next 2-3 weeks between the 2.

At that point I think the gloves have to come off.

Whether KA keeps its brand name or the tails get a splash of green paint may only depend upon who is willing to 'buy' the CITIC stock.

Id place bets on Swire/Air China/CNAC buying any/all options and redistributing them so that Swire/CX get more stock in Air China.......further down track this will possibly become a combined effort a-la KLM/Air France.

For the 1st time in a long time (read ever) it actually appears that the pilots at KA are keen to see a merger too.

Interested to hear others opinions.