Dragonair to take on KL route from Cathay Pacific

Dragonair is to operate services to Kuala Lumpur in March next year, taking over responsibility for the route from sister carrier Cathay Pacific.
It will fly four times a day from its Hong Kong hub, the new services being phased in between March and May.
Kuala Lumpur will become Dragonair’s third destination in Malaysia – it already flies 11 times a week to Penang and five times a week to Kota Kinabalu.
Cathay Pacific will no longer operate its current four daily flights to Kuala Lumpur upon the launch of the new Dragonair service. Moreover, five of Cathay Pacific’s Airbus 330 aircraft will be transferred to the Dragonair fleet in order to support the airline’s operation and growth.
Paul Loo, director corporate development & IT of the Cathay Pacific Group, explained: “This is part of our overall growth strategy for the Group. We continually review the expansion and growth plans for both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, the latter of which will be renamed Cathay Dragon in November.
“The Cathay Pacific Group of airlines remains committed to grow with the Malaysian market,” Loo remarked, adding: “While Dragonair is launching services to Kuala Lumpur, Cathay Pacific is also growing its network of destinations, as reflected by our latest launch to Madrid in June and the upcoming service to Gatwick in London next month.
“More long-haul flights are planned for 2017. The airline is expanding its fleet with the delivery of two state-of-the art Airbus A350 aircraft already and expects to take delivery of 20 more A350s by the end of 2017,” he said.
Launched with just one aircraft as Hong Kong Dragon Airlines in 1985, Dragonair now owns more than 40 aircraft, and has a network across the Asia-Pacific region. It is a member of the Cathay Pacific Group.