Cathay Pacific Group announced (21-Oct-2020) a corporate restructuring in response to the continued impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation market. Major elements of the restructuring include:
Cathay Dragon will cease operations with immediate effect. The group plans to seek regulatory approval for a majority of Cathay Dragon’s routes to be operated by Cathay Pacific and HK Express.
Review our special gallery about "Dragon Aircraft Fleet" taken by many planespotters around the world
History & Fact of Dragonair
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited (Chinese: 港龍航空有限公司), previously operated as Cathay Dragon (國泰港龍航空) and known as Dragonair, was a Hong Kong-based international regional airline, with its corporate headquarters and main hub at Hong Kong International Airport.
As of 30 October 2013, the airline operates a scheduled passenger network to 47 destinations in 14 countries and territories across Asia. Additionally, the airline has three codeshares on routes served by partner airlines. It has an all Airbus fleet of 35 aircraft, consisting of A320s, A321s and A330s.
Cathay Dragon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong's flag carrier, Cathay Pacific, and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. The airline was founded on 24 May 1985, by Chao Kuang Piu, the airline's present honorary chairman. Its maiden flight departed Hong Kong for Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia after being granted an air operator's certificate(AOC) by the Hong Kong Government in July 1985. In 2010, Dragonair, together with its parent, Cathay Pacific, operated over 138,000 flights, carried nearly 27 million passengers and over 1.80 billion kg of cargo and mail.
On 21 October 2020, Cathay Pacific announced that it would shut down all operations of Cathay Dragon and merge it with its parent company due to the lack of customers and heavy economic problems brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This merger marked the end for the subsidiary carrier after 35 years of operations.
Others Major elements of the restructuring :
Reducing its workforce by 24% (8500 positions) of its established headcount. Through a recruitment freeze and natural attrition, the group has been able to reduce this to 5900 actual positions (or 17% of its established headcount). This means some 5300 Hong Kong-based employees being made redundant, and approximately 600 employees based outside of Hong Kong also possibly being affected subject to local regulatory requirements;
Hong Kong-based cabin and cockpit crew members of Cathay Pacific will be asked to agree to changes to their conditions of service which are designed to match remuneration more closely to productivity and to enhance competitiveness;
Executive pay reductions will continue through 2021 and a third voluntary special leave scheme for non-flying employees will be introduced for 1H2021. There will be no salary increases for 2021 nor the payment of the annual discretionary bonus for 2020 across the board for all employees.