The Cathay Pacific Group has announced a new era of growth and opportunity for its two airlines. Cathay Pacific's wholly-owned sister airline Dragonair is to be rebranded as Cathay Dragon. The two will remain as separate airlines, operating under their own licenses. By more closely aligning the two brands, this rebranding will capitalise on Cathay Pacific's high international brand recognition and leverage on Cathay Dragon's unique connectivity into Mainland China - one of the world's fastest-growing business and leisure travel markets.
The airlines' customers will benefit from greater convenience and a more seamless travel experience. Since Dragonair became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific in 2006, it has added 23 new destinations and the number of passengers travelling across both carriers has grown five times to more than 7 million in 2015.
The combined annual passenger number of the two airlines grew from 22 million to more than 34 million last year. This spectacular growth has been made possible by the Cathay Pacific Group's efforts to channel international passengers to and from Mainland China, regional and long-haul markets through Hong Kong International Airport. Cathay Pacific's Chief Executive Ivan Chu said: "We are very proud of what we have achieved together. Cathay Dragon is a brand that will be recognisably part of the Cathay Pacific Group for our customers from different parts of the world. The rebranding will enable us to capture the fast-growing passenger flows across the two carriers by creating a more seamless travel experience."-PR