Cathay Dragon, Cathay’s wholly owned regional subsidiary, has ceased operations. with immediate effect. Cathay Dragon’s routes will most likely be operated by Cathay Pacific and HK Express, a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The closure comes as a direct result of the impact on the Cathay Pacific Group’s finances caused by COVID-19.
The move comes as part of a major restructuring by Cathay Pacific that includes:
- Reducing approximately 8,500 positions across the entire Group, which accounts for around 24% of its established headcount.
- Changing contracts for Cathay Pacific’s Hong Kong-based cabin and cockpit crew to ones with substantially inferior terms to those they currently have.
- Executive pay cuts and no salary increases for 2021 nor the payment of the annual discretionary bonus for 2020 across the board for all employees.
Cathay Dragon was a full service regional carrier flying mainly to mainland China and other Asian destinations.
Cathay Pacific acquired a stake in the airline in 1990, and then bought it outright in 2006.
It changed the brand name to Cathay Dragon in 2016.
Routes: Cathay Dragon operated to over 40 cities in more than 10 countries in Asia.
Fleet: At close of operation, Cathay Dragon had an all Airbus fleet of over 30 aircraft, comprising:
- 12 Airbus A320 (all parked)
- 8 Airbus A321 (1 in operation, 7 parked)
- 18 Airbus A330 ( 6 in operation, 12 parked)
N.B. Image credit: Cathay Pacific
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