Cathay Pacific September 1946 as "Cathay Pacific Airways Limited", while another sister company The Roy Farrell Export Import Company (Hong Kong) Limited was incorporated on 28 August 1946 and chartered some flights of Cathay. According to "International Directory of Company Histories", forming two companies are for tax purposes. They named the airline "Cathay", the ancient name given to China, and "Pacific" because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific (which happened in the 1970s). Moreover, to avoid the name "Air Cathay" as it was already occurred in a comic. The Chinese name for the company ("") was not
Cathay Dragon owned subsidiary, provides ground handling services to the airline at Hong Kong International Airport. Their services include airside/landside operations, airport lounge, baggage services, cargo services, ramp services, ticketing & Information, station control and flight operations. On 1 November 2008, HIAS was integrated into Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd (HAS), a joint venture between Dragonair and Cathay Pacific, to become one of the Asia's largest airport services providers. On 1 December 2008, HAS became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. Cathay Dragon Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd (Chinese: 港龍航空有限公司), operating brand as Cathay Dragon (Chinese: 國泰港龍航空) and previously as Dragonair,