Unfortunately I have little confidence that CX (or Sodexo) has planned for this. It has felt like CX has been absurdly cautious with their plans to ramp up capacity into 2024 - seemingly expecting the mainland to have remained closed for most of 2023 and that other HKG transit demand would remain low. The new CEO message from the other day doesn’t give any indication that the company has an ability to materially accelerate their plans.

As an up side (from a lounges perspective), CX seemingly being caught flat footed in its ability to add back flying capacity will mean that demand for lounges won’t be as high as it otherwise would have been. Also, with the new Chase Sapphire lounge and with the Amex Centurion lounge reopening (with limited hours for now), at least there are some reasonable quality alternatives as well.