Possible Cathay Pacific Structural Change

Real World Aviation
#1

Hello IFC,

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Cathay Pacific have considered reshuffling their fleet and group. Some examples are (that have been rumoured) are of Cathay Dragon giving all their A330s to the mainline Cathay Pacific fleet, leaving them with A320s, A321s and A321NEOs (currently on order).

There have also been rumours of Hong Kong Express, Hong Kong’s only budget airline, rebranding to Cathay Express after the original acquirement from Cathay Pacific of the airline back in early 2020. The new (possible) Cathay Express livery is believed to have the same concept of the 2015 Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon livery, except using the base colour of Hong Kong Express’ signature purple.

What are your thoughts on this?

Vinne

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Bird Logos and Liveries #2 --- Cathay Pacific's Brushwing
#3

I don’t think purple is a good look with the Cathay Pacific livery. I’d like more of a blue?

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#4

Think it’s going to be hard for Cathay they’ve already dealt with so much over the last few years

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#5

Hmmm… Cathay Express? Doesn’t sound half bad to me.

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#6

I see what you mean, but the purple really represents Hong Kong Express. At least that way there will at least still be a little bit of original heritage with Hong Kong Express.

#7

Sure doesn’t. I find it a change for the good, as it links more to the company and even non-aviation enthusiast will still be able to see that it is owned by Cathay Pacific.

#9

To be completely honest, I will miss the Cathay Dragon livery on the A330s as I’ve flown on them tons. However, I’m also happy that mid-haul flights that are usually operated by Cathay Dragons’s A330s will be operated bu Cathay Pacific, subsequently having better refurbished cabins and meal service. Some personal opinions here.

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#11

There was this regarding the rumor:

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From @JournoDannyAero

Also I don’t think Cathay Dragon has the XLR on order, just the neo.

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#12

Oh well, we never know. Might come through after all…

#13

Yeah by the sounds of it like said above no one has made an official announcement just like Qantas retirement of the 747-400

#14

Yeah, it’s possible. I believed it at first a few days ago but not really anymore. If the situation continues to worsen, consolidating brands may not be the best idea if Cathay doesn’t have the money to do so. Continuing to raise liquidity by doing things such as aircraft sell-leaseback arrangements is what they need right now.

#15

I don’t really see the purple honestly, sounds interesting to say the least.

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#16

True, true. However, just moving the Cathay Dragon A330s into the Cathay Pacific mainline fleet won’t do any harm at all.

Rebranding Hong Kong Express is not a priority in my opinion and can always be doen at a later stage.

#17

Doesn’t look to bad at all in my opinion. I like the current livery but I find that the rebranding name makes up for that.

image

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#18

Right, changed the OP.

#19

By the sounds of it the whole of Cathay Dragon would be rebranded if the Rumour is true as they said HK and Cathay Dragon would merge together

#20

Hopefully the Cathay Pacific Group survives Covid-19. Cathay Pacific is my favorite airline and it would really be heartbreaking to see them collapse.

#21

Could you rephrase that?

#22

It’s my favourite to. I got a couple of family members working as pilots for Cathay, so a bankruptcy would not be good for them.

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#23

As a HongKonger, its sad to see either Cathay Dragon or HK Express to go, I have been on both and they certainly were good. But like some of you mentioned above, it might be weird for Cathay Dragon and HK Express merge and sort of weird colours. Cathay Dragon focused on regional and mainland China route while HK Express focus on East Asian low-costs (such as Japan). It will be a challenge for CX to deal with those.

Concerning about the retiring of planes, its hard to choose for CX. For example, everyone knows BA wants to retire their 747 asap, so as other 747-400 operators, VS even did that in a day (duh). However, what I saw was CX has specific service region and timing for each of their fleet. Like the A330 they are making use of it widely now because its their plane with least capacity but can cover up the whole Asia and Australia.

So…hope CX can go through this pandemic and I CAN FLY IT AGAIN SOON🤤.

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