Improved connections between Cathay Pacific and Dragonair flights to boost Hong Kong hub

Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that a significant enhancement in connections between its own flights and Dragonair flights will come into effect with the winter 2006 schedule. From 29 October, a total of 451 more connections a week will be made available due to a reduction from 60 minutes to 50 minutes in the “Minimum Connecting Time” (MCT) between the two carriers.

The reduction in MCT is among the early tangible benefits to emerge since Dragonair became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific on 28 September and will bring significant benefits for passengers connecting between Cathay Pacific’s strong international network and Dragonair’s extensive network of destinations in the Chinese Mainland. The new development will help to further boost Hong Kong’s role as a leading aviation hub and gateway to the Chinese Mainland for international travellers.

Teams in Cathay Pacific and Dragonair worked together to reduce waiting times for passengers connecting between the two airlines and also to open up a greater number of connections. For example, travellers arriving in Hong Kong on CX889 from New York will be able to connect with Dragonair’s daily KA802 flight to Shanghai within 50 minutes. Similarly, passengers arriving from Kaohsiung in Taiwan on KA439 at 09.50 will be able to catch Cathay Pacific’s daily CX739 Hong Kong-Singapore service within 50 minutes.

Cathay Pacific’s Director of Corporate Development Augustus Tang said: “One of the key aims of the Dragonair integration is to create synergies between the two carriers that will benefit passengers and the Hong Kong hub in general. The reduction of Minimum Connecting Times from the winter schedule will reduce the time passengers have to spend in transit and at the same time open up a greater number of connections between Cathay Pacific and Dragonair.”

The first initiative to result from the Cathay Pacific/Dragonair integration was the relaunch of Dragonair’s service to Phuket, Thailand, starting from 15 December. A number of other routing and product initiatives are expected to result from the synergies of the integration.