Cathay Pacific today announced that DragonAir will cease to exist, instead the sister airline to Cathay Pacific will be rebranded as Cathay Dragon. In a press release announced today, Cathay Pacific’s Chief Executive Ivan Chu said “In aligning the Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon brands, we will create a more seamless journey for customers, enabling us to deliver on our promise of a ‘Life Well Travelled’.”

However the airline also announced the two airlines won’t be merged, instead continuing to operate as two separate carriers, with just the name and brand changing rather than the operation. Talking of brand, Cathay Dragon has adopted the new livery design of Cathay Pacific, whilst turning the blue and green areas to red. This inadvertently has given the carrier a touch of Qantas and Turkish Airlines if viewed from far away – although both have limited cross over with Cathay Dragon’s routes.

“We see this a real Hong Kong success story, and we aim to ensure the success continues. Through this rebranding, we will make it much clearer to customers that they are flying on a member of the Cathay Pacific Group, and we have created a new look for Cathay Dragon that clearly identifies it as a Group airline.”

“There are two main reasons behind this rebranding, the first being a desire to capitalise on Cathay Pacific’s strong international brand recognition. The second driver is to leverage on Cathay Dragon’s unique connectivity into Mainland China.” continued Ivan Chu. It’s fair to expect little difference to the cabin products, as there is already a strong synergy between the two carriers.