@Transpacificflyer - Respectfully disagree on some points:

1. CX's geography is different from QF and LH: CX's base is the 7m HK residents, plus the 12m SZ residents who bus over and a significant chunk of the 108m residents of Guangdong province who bus or ferry.

The better analogy is BA/LHR rather than those two airlines.

2. In any case the KA China network is your effective domestic feeder equivalent.

3. I strongly disagree with the assertion that CX is not favoured by the current administration:

- JQHK got denied HK AOC on an austere reading of English shipping law that CX itself wouldn't have qualified had a grandfather clause not been inserted into our Basic Law

- HKExpress (45% owned by HU) got a massive rap over the knuckles for sloppy safety planning around October last year. It deserved criticism, I won't deny that, but certainly the assertion that HKSARG will back Mainland-supported company doesn't seem to be borne out.

4. HKG is slot constrained (again, like LHR). HKExpress, HK Airlines (largest shareholder HU again) and LCCs would love to have more.

I acknowledge this is a two-edged sword for CX - on one hand it profits as a slot hog, but on the other hand it will affect yield covering all those slots and being unable to reduce unprofitable services.

5. So CX's economics mirror those of BA with its LHR emphasis and constraints. I don't see BA splitting of a LCC either, just turning the mainline into a LCC while retaining the capability to price like a FSC while it can (CX also) (our perceptions of CX service obviously differ).