The most surprising thing about Cathay Pacific's stillborn bid to acquire a stake in China Eastern Airlines was that it was even attempted in the first place.
In an ordinary sector in a normal market, the proposed bid might have been feasible, although it would undoubtedly have attracted close scrutiny from competition regulators.
But the airline industry is not an ordinary sector, and China is far from being a normal market.
When rumours of the bid first broke, it sounded like a bold move likely to shake up a sickly sector. Cathay was to team up with China National Aviation Holding, the parent of its mainland partner China Airlines, to bid for a stake in the ailing China Eastern Airlines. If successful, Cathay's proposal would have skewered an earlier US$923 million bid from Singapore Airlines and its parent Temasek Holdings for a 24 per cent slice of China Eastern.
Yet the proposed joint acquisition of a substantial stake in China Eastern - possibly as much as a third - never stood a chance of success. Whatever its commercial merits, and despite rumours of a handsome bid price, the deal would have run counter to Beijing's grand plan for the nation's aviation industry. That doomed it to inevitable failure.
With the last round of sector consolidation completed a few years ago, the mainland authorities created three big state airlines - Air China, China Eastern and China Southern, based in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou respectively - to be the mainland's future national aviation champions.