Cathay Pacific will rebrand its regional offshoot Dragonair as ‘Cathay Dragon’ as part of a continued brand overhaul for the Hong Kong-based airline.
The move, announced today to staff at the airline's headquarters, will underscore Dragonair's links to its highly-regarded parent.
It includes a new red-tailed livery (above) based on the streamlined look of Cathay Pacific, which will adorn Cathay's first Airbus A350 (below) when it takes to the skies by mid-year.
Read: Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 delivery pushed back to Q2
Read: Inside Cathay Pacific's all-new Airbus A350
The merged brand has been on the cards since at least 2013, when the airline commissioned this concept artwork featuring the 'Cathay Dragon' brand.
'Cathay Dragon' concept artwork prepared for Cathay Pacific in 2013
'Cathay Dragon' concept artwork prepared for Cathay Pacific in 2013
Dragonair flies mainly into China and Asia, with seating based on Cathay Pacific's existing products for a more seamless travel experience when hopping between CX and KA flights.
For example, Dragonair's first class seats are adapted from Cathay's international business class...
... while both airlines share the same regional business class seat.
Dragonair has also adopted the same economy seats as seen on Cathay's long-haul international flights.
That's not to mention Dragonair's on-demand inflight entertainment system named StudioKA – which is modelled on Cathay Pacific's StudioCX system and includes iDevice connectivity, USB ports and AC power sockets in every seat from tip to tail.
Also read:
- Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 bound for Auckland in 'second half of year'
- Cathay Pacific eyes Sydney, Melbourne for more Boeing 777s
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter – we're @AusBT
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Jun 2015
Total posts 71
im everyone and i didnt know. Great article, i often fly dragon air and wondered why they kept such different brands with similar standards.
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1245
Wow, someone went a little crazy with the Photoshop in those concept pictures. The lady in the first picture looks like she might morph into a Cathay Dragon any moment and eat you whole.
Not a fan of the new name.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Jul 2014
Total posts 9
Dragon Pacific would sound better IMHO..
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Jan 2016
Total posts 17
Agree @etho, but they clearly want the name Cathay in there. Cathay is the old word for China anyway, so got to be a better name combo than Cathay Dragon. They are doing this to make swapping of aircraft between the two brands more seamless.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3012
Anything is better than JetStar as parent and subsidiary goes.
29 Mar 2014
Total posts 78
Yeah, it does, but it just wont work. We refer to the airline as Cathay, not Pacific, and as such Cathay has a much stronger brand. And second, the original Cathay was named Cathay Pacific because its founders wanted the airline to fly across the Pacific someday, a goal it eventually accomplished. With dragonair under cathay, thats unlikeky to ever happen.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Jan 2016
Total posts 17
Name wise they just don't combine - Cathay Dragon sounds terrible. Cathay Regional, Cathay Link or Cathay Shuttle would be a better choice? I'm guessing it's probably wanting to retain the Dragon name as it resonates in China and possibly also something to do with AOC issues - keeping CX and KA separate.
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
30 Nov 2015
Total posts 730
Don't mind the new name at all.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Oct 2014
Total posts 692
"The merged brand has been on the cards since at least 2013"
Whilst Swire/Cathay own DragonAir (now Cathay Dragon), I'm wondering if the word 'merged' is correct here David?
As I understand this, the 'rebranding' is the result of two seperate companies aligning their marketing strategy under the Cathay brand (as opposed to the DragonAir brand). The joint livery (green tail / red tail) is the most visual linkage - with red being chosen for its mainland China association and where Dragon has more exposure and recognition than Cathay's current 4 daily flights to PEK/PVG. However, I do not understand this to be a merger.
DragonAir / Cathay Dragon will continue to operate as a seperate entity with its own AOC, and Cathay Pacific will continue its own operation under its own AOC.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1251
For all intensive purposes Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon are the same company. Cathay Dragon is not going to do anything which is not in the interests of Cathay Pacific.
05 Sep 2014
Total posts 14
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1251
Lol, that's what I meant.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Oct 2014
Total posts 692
Would you call British Airways, Iberia and Vueling 'all the same company' because they are owned by IAG ? Don't think I would.
22 Jan 2015
Total posts 14
Does the tailplane remind anyone of a combination of the Qantas and last incarnation of Australian Airlines, mixed together?
30 May 2011
Total posts 37
kinda does. I'm a bit sad to see the Dragonair livery gone, suppose the legacy will live on in the form of the Pokemon which can confused google search results with the airline's previous name.
At least the dragon didn't completely get chopped off from the new livery...
30 May 2011
Total posts 37
also to add, this idea kinda reminds me of what Malaysia Airlines wanted to do with their livery: split the blue to international (which is currently on the A380 livery) and red to domestic... which never happened.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Mar 2015
Total posts 19
30 May 2011
Total posts 37
Crouching Cathay, Hidden Dragon
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Jan 2016
Total posts 3
So maybe SQ should rebrand MI too
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Jan 2016
Total posts 3
SQ has four totally differently named airlines
18 Apr 2015
Total posts 67
It's official. New name is horrendous. As Michael said, they don't combine well. Why not just rebrand to Cathay Pacific?
10 Dec 2015
Total posts 177
But why it should <<just rebrand to Cathay Pacific>>?
Anyway, unlike in the Australian mkt where brand awareness for CX is much higher than KA, brand awareness within mainland China mkt for KA(i.e. Dragonair and its Chinese langauge equivalent) is much much higher than CX. In fact, if U look @ the China route/frequency network of KA vs CX, the former out-number the latter by about 30:1.....the Dragonair brand simply has been enjoying much higher visibility than the Cathay brand across China for decades.
Naturally, branding strategy of KA will be catered much more towards mainland China mkt than any other mkt.....particularly when China outbound demand(i.e. PRC nationals going overseas) is much more important to CX Group these days than China inbound demand(i.e. foreigners going into China) especially in the hi-yield premium cabin /corp segment.
01 Jan 1970
Total posts 0
While I agree mostly with the above comment, I doubt in the context of the Mainland China market, changing the ENGLISH name of the airline would make any difference at all. The "new" Chinese name for Dragonair retains the two characters that were the previous Chinese name for Dragonair, but puts them after the two Chinese characters representing Cathay Pacific (????).
)
Qantas
13 Jun 2015
Total posts 141
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Feb 2015
Total posts 150
Although the new name sounds a bit....hmmm.....let's say 'Striking' , I think given 'Dragonair' was a well known brand in the Greater China area, I reckon the thoughts behind this rebranding is probably trying to keep some link and 'familiarity' with the long established name so customers will recognise it straight away. If they went for a 'complete' rebranding...let's say calling it 'Cathay Link' or 'Cathay Express' for example, then a lot more marketing (thus money) needs to be put in market to let everyone know that it is indeed the old Dragonair.
Also they probably thought about the new name in Chinese Mandarin and how it sounds, keeping in mind mainland China is the biggest market for KA. And what they simply did was adding 'Cathay' in front of 'Dragonair' in the new Chinese name, so no major change at all in that sense.
10 Dec 2015
Total posts 177
<<If they went for a 'complete' rebranding...let's say calling it 'Cathay Link' or 'Cathay Express' for example, then a lot more marketing needs to be put in market...>>
Absolutely. The Dragonair brand is well entrenched within mainland China mkt whereas the Cathay brand still isn't. Retiring 'Dragonair' completely will be akin to @ least partial destruction of brand value accumulated decades long by CX group in China.
<<...they probably thought about the new name in Chinese Mandarin...>>
Not <<probably>> but almost 99% certainty. I would be extremely surprised if the new KA branding is not based primarily fm the Chinese language/cultural perspective. In other words, the English version is a 2ndary consideration in this KA rebranding exercise and therefore less important(e.g. to entertain non-Chinese speakers who may think Cathay Dragon sounds terrible in English).
<<...keeping in mind mainland China is the biggest market for KA..>>
Or more precisely, travellers originating from <<mainland China is the biggest market for KA>> these days. Many folks here don't realize that probably because of an Australia-centric mentality and Australian Business Traveller is not exactly the most popular travel media for those who live in mainland China but do fly frequently.
10 Sep 2015
Total posts 5
too similar to turkish airlines!
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Cathay Pacific rebrands Dragonair as 'Cathay Dragon'