Again the now old chestnut doing the rounds about not enough pilots is frankly rubbish its origin is disenchanted ex Cathay pilots who posted this nonsense on every available website back a year or so.
The airline has again over 3000 pilots and has reemployed many pilots who chose to leave during the pandemic or ex Dragon. It will need more going forward but there is no real shortage of applicants it seems
Many Australian pilots that left HK but had permeant residency have returned under a scheme that allowed them to be reemployed having persumably found that the grass was not so green back home and the tax much higher than than HKs 17% and lower salary's and poorer conditions being offered by local airlines looking for pilots.
I came back from Auckland a couple of weeks back with 5 Cathay pilots commuting back to HK.
According to a senior captain on the 777 that I had a drink with last evening there is no shortage of pilots for the 777 ERs. which are being retrieved from long term storage as again needed.