Cathay Pacific Airways has announced that it is expanding its flagship inflight magazine, Discovery, into the digital environment.

Scheduled to go live today (2 August 2012), Discovery magazine will be available for download as a digital magazine, as an app for mobile devices, and for browsing on the Cathay Pacific website - cathaypacific.com/discovery. The print version of Discovery will continue to be available onboard all Cathay Pacific flights.

Custom-built for Cathay Pacific by the magazine's publisher, ACP Magazines Asia Ltd, the Digital Discovery platform has been optimised for usability and functionality across all devices - from smartphones and iPads to non iPad tablets and desktop computers - to bring a fresh, bilingual approach to quality travel editorial.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Product Alex McGowan said: "As smartphones and other digital communication devices become increasingly popular, the launch of Digital Discovery is an exciting development that allows us to create and distribute engaging digital content across multiple channels, all integrated under the Discovery brand. This is a great way to enhance and complement the onboard entertainment experience for our passengers."

The digital platforms offer a wide variety of interactive elements including embedded videos, high-resolution screenshots, interactive features as well as other exciting and exclusive content. Moreover, while the magazine can be downloaded from the App Store, HTML 5 technology is employed to ensure that Discovery will be available app-free across almost all devices from just about anywhere.

The digitalised content on the website centres on two key editorial pillars to provide passengers with useful travel information: a suite of snapshot guides to Hong Kong across a range of "hit lists", including dining and hotels plus activity and entertainment options; and "new and now summary" guides covering 44 Cathay Pacific destinations.

About Discovery

Contemporary yet timeless, Discovery magazine's appeal blends minimalism with a high degree of prestige to communicate to more than 20 million passengers each year and some of the world most frequent flyers. According to PAX, an independent readership survey of print media across Asia's 10 most important markets, Discovery is the best-read of all regional inflight magazines and readership continues to grow.