[2] In the final year before it ceased flying, the airline operated a scheduled passenger network to around 50 destinations in 14 countries and territories across Asia.

The airline began services to Phuket International Airport in Thailand, as well as six secondary cities in mainland China on a regular charter basis in 1986.

The airline was disadvantaged in that Hong Kong's financial secretary back then, Sir John Bremridge, was a former Cathay Pacific chairman.

Stephen Miller, Dragonair's first CEO, said: Our arrival on the scene was not hailed very enthusiastically by the then Hong Kong Government...we got a lot of opposition from Cathay (Pacific).

[6] It was later discovered that Cathay Pacific was concentrating on a boom in travel elsewhere in the 1980s and had left the undeveloped mainland China market to Dragonair.

The change of ownership saw Cathay Pacific transferring its Beijing and Shanghai routes to Dragonair, along with a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar on a lease basis.

CNAC's holding was further increased to 43 per cent when it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 17 December 1997.

On 5 July 1998, Dragonair Flight 841 from Chongqing was the last scheduled arrival at Kai Tak Airport, landed runway 13 at 15:38 GMT (23:38 Hong Kong time).

A second daily European loop to Frankfurt and London, in addition to Manchester and Amsterdam, followed, and by mid 2004, the airline had five Boeing 747 freighters and 26 Airbus passenger aircraft.

In a bitter Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) hearings in 2004, Cathay Pacific applied to fly to three mainland cities to which Dragonair filed an objection, saying the move would have an effect on its very survival.

[4][7][11] A new passenger service to Sydney was scheduled to open in the second half of 2005, along with Manila and Seoul as the other anticipated destinations.

"[citation needed] Peter Hilton, transport analyst at CSFB, said Tyler's remarks were a "cut and dried" dismissal of the takeover talk.

Dragonair's own loyalty programme, The Elite, that was launched on 12 February 2001, was merged into Cathay Pacific's The Marco Polo Club from 1 January 2007.

The airline's traditional Chinese and English name and its logo are in gold colour and are painted on the forward fuselage above the red horizontal strip and on the vertical stabiliser, respectively.

The special livery featured a waterside view with a junk and fishes leaping out of the water at the front of the aircraft; a red dragon spread across the fuselage in the daylight; and children playing with traditional Chinese lanterns by the waterside of an ancient village on the left side of the aircraft, representing the past.

[citation needed] It also featured a waterside view with a Star Ferry at front of the aircraft; and a red dragon spread across the fuselage in the Hong Kong night sky, representing the present.

It is painted on an Airbus A330-300 (B-HYB), and it is the sister aircraft to Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777-300 (B-HNK), and was retired on 24 September 2020, after its last flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong as KA877.

However, only beverages and pastries were served in Economy Class for flights between Hong Kong and Changsha, Clark, Guangzhou, Haikou and Sanya.

[54] Beginning in March 2013, the majority of the airline's fleet was retrofitted with new Business and Economy Class seats.

The following are Cathay Dragon's major subsidiaries and associates: (as of 23 December 2016[update])[62] Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd (HAS), a former wholly owned subsidiary, provides ground handling services to the airline at Hong Kong International Airport.