When SQ held 49% of Virgin Atlantic, Virgin was still a UK carrier i.e. was not allowed home privileges in Singapore, and vice versa. Not sure how the politics are going to work out if CX squeaks, but my guess is that these occurrences are rare enough that it is not worthwhile for CX to expend its political capital. Much better to use whatever little leverage it has on getting more military air space opened and for KA to serve more ports.

To be fair, when a KA jet got diverted to SZX last week and then developed a mechanical problem, the Chinese authorities gave in and allowed passengers to deplane and go to HK by land.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/ar...ed-storms.html