Since I relocated to Dubai last year, this route HKG-DXB has become my staple. From my observations (at least in economy class), there are a lot of passengers connecting to MNL, CGK, SUB, etc so i reckon these are low yield but high volume destinations? so maybe like other posters have brought up earlier, 1) by ditching PEY, CX gets more seats to sell 2) the pax on this route is not willing to pay for PEY? the value proposition is just not there or the type of pax is the price conscious one