Originally Posted by
JW95
What an absolutely ridiculous statement to make, and completely baseless. Granted, CX went through a very rough time (I'd argue more so than most of its competitors) during the pandemic, yes, but that doesn't equate to CX being "tarnished". It is as you know currently rebuilding its pre-Covid network, which is taking time, but is continuing to make good progress nonetheless. Also, more routes are coming back. That in and of itself does not paint a picture of a "tarnished" brand, more like a brand that is building back better.
Where I think CX is having an issue is the war for talent. For various reasons they probably went too far in cutting T&C of technical staff. So they are building back slower than, say, EK/QR/SQ because of staffing issues. Some of this is also the perception post political turmoil and COVID that HK is not as attractive a place to be. Especially if other airlines are now paying better. The slower build up means they missed out on the high profits from 'revenge travel' that many other airlines got.
HKAOA figures released in January (sure, they have an axe to grind) show that CX is down 1000 pilots from 2019 (but they are comparing CX/KA to CX, rather than CX/KA/UO to CX/UO)