Cathay Pacific settled on until the 1950s. It comes from a meaning "grand and peaceful state" and was at the time often used by other businesses called "Cathay" in English. According to legend, the airline's unique name was conceived by Farrell and some foreign correspondents at the bar of the Manila Hotel, while another narrative was the name was taken in the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai Bund, during drinking and brainstorming, and choosing Cathay was to avoid the word China in the airline name. 25 September, on Cathay Pacific's maiden voyage, de Kantzow and Peter Hoskins flew from Sydney to Hong Kong
Cathay Dragon The aircraft was removed from service in February 2013, at the expiration of its lease. In 2016, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair's parent company, announced that they would be re-branding Dragonair to Cathay Dragon. For this change, a new livery has been adopted. The new livery is similar to Cathay Pacific's new livery in the tail logo and font. The major difference is instead of the Cathay Pacific green theme, it has a light maroon theme. The titles say Cathay Dragon along with Chinese lettering reading the name. Dragonair's Dragon logo has been retained and appears next to the cockpit windows. The