Cathay picks up 15 Dragon routes

Cathay Pacific has been given approval to operate 15 routes previously given up by its scrapped subsidiary Cathay Dragon and is expected to relaunch those routes this summer at the earliest.

Cathay returned Cathay Dragon's air transport license and traffic rights - which included 46 routes - to the Air Transport Licensing Authority in November. The Transport and Housing Bureau invited five local airlines to apply for the rights.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China recently granted Cathay operating permits for 15 routes between Hong Kong and mainland, The Standard's sister paper Sing Tao Daily reported yesterday.

The 15 destinations - over 60 percent of Dragon's original 22 mainland flight routes - include Qingdao, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

Destinations such as Qingdao and Xiamen have been popular with travelers. In 2019, there were 11 weekly flights between Hong Kong and Qingdao.

Cathay Pacific is expected to update its summer flight schedules to include the new mainland routes soon.

"We intend to seek regulatory approval for a majority of Cathay Dragon's routes to be operated by Cathay Pacific or HK Express, a wholly owned subsidiary," a Cathay spokesman said.

"We will continue to strengthen our network and maintain Hong Kong's international hub status by harnessing Cathay Pacific's strengths and unparalleled customer experience, while leveraging the potential of HK Express."

Cathay's stock price closed 5.53 percent lower at HK$7 yesterday.

Greater Bay Airlines, founded by businessman Bill Wong Cho-bau, has also applied for Dragon's traffic rights and plans to operate 114 routes.

But Wong said his company is still waiting for its air operator's certificate and it is too soon to discuss flight routes.

Applications to take up Dragon's traffic rights are currently being examined, the Transport and Housing Bureau said.