The aeroplanes are not wet leased to QR and will not come back from QR. The 777 that were with Cx that are now with QR were not owned by CX they were leased airframes that were returned to the owner and subsequently leased by QR from the leasing company, these airframes will never return to Cathay.

The remaining 777 in Australia will take quite some time to return to Cathay if ever, first of all Cathay does not have enough 777 pilots they either all left, were made redundant or transferred to other fleets most noticeably the 747.

Even if and when they decide to return those 777 it takes 2-3 months to do so because they have been away for so long they have to undergo a heavy 'c' check which is a costly and time consuming process, not to mention the fact many items on those aircraft have expired and need concessions to get them out of Australia and into China to undergo the checks.

The next destination to resume first class service is HND in February and will be followed by LAX sometime soon (2-3 months), assuming they have enough resources to offer the product consistently, ie first class trained cabin crew, cockpit crew to fly the 777 and enough first class equipped 777 aircraft.