“We have been Hong Kong’s home carrier for many decades,” a recent statement said. “This is our home. We have grown with this great city and are committed to remaining at the heart of its future growth and success.”

On Wednesday, citing a drop in August traffic, Cathay said it would trim its growth plans. In a memo to employees reviewed by The New York Times, it also announced a hiring freeze.

The problems could continue. While city leaders have canceled a bill that would have allowed extraditions of people suspected of crimes to the mainland, a catalyst for the protests, they have continued over other problems.

Hong Kong’s protests and Beijing’s growing willingness to intercede in the city’s affairs could profoundly change how people work and do business in the Asian financial capital. Cathay, for example, is controlled by Swire Pacific, one of a handful of conglomerates that can trace their history to Hong Kong’s early British colonial era, and have long been dominated by non-Chinese executives. Because it depends so much on business in China, it faces growing pressure to show its loyalty.

“If they want to gain better access to the Chinese market to do business better and easier, foreign companies want to satisfy the nationalistic preferences to the extent they can,” said Zhiwu Chen, a professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong. “Given that background, native Chinese executives are more likely to develop better personal connections on the mainland, either with officials or with other business executives.”

Last month, as Beijing piled pressure on the airline, the company named Augustus Tang, a 60-year-old longtime Cathay and Swire employee, as its new chief executive, replacing Rupert Hogg, the British-born executive who had led the company for only two years.