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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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🤤.
