Cathay Pacific eyes higher skies with rebranding

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Group — operator of flag carrier Cathay Pacific — has embarked on a novel brand alignment strategy, following the high-profile move to rebrand its wholly-owned airline Dragonair, as ‘Cathay Dragon’.

While the two carriers will remain as separate airlines, operating under their own licences, the move is expected to closely align the two brands. “For the last ten years, we have been marketing our network together. The need for the rebranding is part of a logical progression to align the strengths of both the brands, and the overall travel experience, fostering greater synergy,” Cathay Pacific Airways General Manager (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) Charlie Stewart-Cox told Deccan Herald.

Dragonair (Cathay Dragon) is the regional premium sister airline of the global premium carrier Cathay Pacific. While Cathay Pacific is an airline recognised internationally, Dragonair is known for its unique connectivity into Mainland China.

By more closely aligning the two brands, the rebranding will capitalise on Cathay Pacific’s high international brand recognition and leverage on Cathay Dragon’s unique connectivity into China — one of the world’s fastest-growing business and leisure travel markets.

“A lot of people fly into China on Dragonair, via Hong Kong, while a lot of them also fly overseas from China, via Hong Kong, on Cathay Pacific. People travelling on either airline can now experience seamless travel ” Stewart-Cox said.

“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 seven million in 2015. The combined annual passenger numbers of the two airlines grew from 22 million, to more than 34 million, last year,” he added.

Meanwhile, the rebranding will see a new livery created for Cathay Dragon that features a Cathay-style brushwing logo, which will appear for the first time on one of Cathay Dragon’s Airbus A330-300 aircraft in April, and will be progressively introduced to the rest of the airline’s 41-aircraft fleet.

The Cathay Pacific Group will be launching a major international advertising and marketing campaign later this year, to promote recognition of Cathay Dragon and the benefits this rebranding will bring to passengers.