The new flights will be introduced progressively between March and May 2017. Kuala Lumpur will become Dragonair’s third destination in Malaysia – the airline already operates 11 weekly flights to Penang and five weekly flights to Kota Kinabalu. Together with Kuala Lumpur, Dragonair will be operating 44 weekly flights to Malaysia.

Cathay Pacific will cease its four daily flights to Kuala Lumpur upon the launch of the new Dragonair service. Additionally, five of Cathay Pacific’s Airbus A330 aircraft will be transferred to the Dragonair fleet to support the airline’s operation and growth.

Paul Loo, Director Corporate Development & IT of the Cathay Pacific Group, said: “This is part of our overall growth strategy for the Group. The aircraft transfer will also help to optimise the Group’s training abilities. 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, and will continue to provide the same high level of product and service to our customers travelling to and from Malaysia.

“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.”