It is really hard to understand what is happening.
The Annual report issued in April 2016 showed excellent results. The Chairman stated " The high passenger load factors experienced in the first half of the
year continued in the second half."
Sure there was some warning about premium longhaul demand and decrease in yield. But the overall tone was positive.

Sure oil prices have increased a bit to $50, but the average price in 2016 is not above the average price in 2015. But why the dramatic and sudden change in mood?
CX must be planning some drastic measures and needs this dramatic profit warning following a bleak interim report three weeks ago.

My flights to/from CDG last Feb/Mar (night flights both ways) were full and the return over booked as there were waitlist pax. My flights in Jan/Mar (260 out and 261 back) look quite booked up too.

Indeed, very full in J from/to CDG currently.

When the CX Board of Directors engage in the critical review of their business, I hope that a majority of them realize the need to replace Ivan Chu and also hope that a majority if not a super majority vote to get rid of him.

In my view, replacing Ivan Chu with a better manager and leader is a pre-requisite to fixing the increasing challenges that CX faces. It's like CX has their own equivalent of Jeff Smisek. Chu's tenure is one where CX suffers from severe financial losses, declining customer service, employee dissatisfaction, increased customer dissatisfaction, and critical IT issues and failures.

Contrary to the CX statement, I don't believe that there is any real improvement in the products and services which CX provide to their customers. This forum is replete with examples of significant decline of CX products and services. Certainly any improvement in products and services is not enough to improve their passenger business.

While I will re-qualify for Diamond in 2017, I've moved significant business away from CX this year.

Can somebody please help me understand something. One of the main issues outlined was over capacity yet they are increasing network capacity by moving to 10 abreast on the 777s and adding new routes and frequencies. As for Ivan Chu, I don't think you will find a single member on this board who would defend him.

...And something I really don't understand: why is the Board so slow to act on Ivan Chu? What's keeping him there?

CX's and SQ's fares are very prohibitive. J pricing are almost always 2x that of ME carriers. I have never flown SQ because of its fares.

I agree...ME3 exMNL is crazy cheap. QR is offering USD1746 (all inclusive) for R class fares to LHR. CDG is at 1870 while FCO is at 1646. You can buy two of those for the price of 1 exMNL ticket on CX.

They normally follow a cycle right? I mean like John Slosar, was CEO for 3 years from 2011 to 2014 before moving to Swire. Does that mean Ivan Chu still has until 2017?

Ivan Chu is dragging this company to the bottom since he took over the top job. Chu seems to have no issue with being an average middle of the pack carrier as long as the balance sheet looks good. I'm really hoping the board of directors has enough common sense in them to realize this downhill slide hasn't stopped since Slosar moved on to Swire. I truly believe that if CX chose to strive for excellence in every category they would have a much better chance at competing and pulling ahead of their competitors rather attempting to have the absolute lowest costs without falling too far down the ladder. Its frustrating to see a brand and company that I respect and believe in devaluing like this. Hopefully the ship can be righted before it hits the iceberg.

Not exactly.
They don't need to be competitive, they need to be profitable (from the directors' POV)
If they can achieve that by Cruz-style cost-cutting and leeching their slot hog, that's fine by the directors.

Yes, there is current overcapacity, but this probably won't last and the 10 abreast won't arrive for over a year. The airline needs to be able to grow to compete and spread its fixed costs over more capacity. By adding one seat to each row, CX can increase their own capacity at very little marginal cost compared to adding an extra flight.

Because he's on the Board.... Actually John Slosar as Chairman really doesn't think Ivan Chu has problem... So both of them need to be replaced... But Ivan Chu has higher priority....


Usually direct flight is more expensive... That high price is a trade off for convenience and time saving...

I based my observations on ex-MNL flights to Europe.

Interesting. Do you happen to have the article from CAPA? I've been reading CAPA for the past five months or so and I think I missed it out.