Cathay Pacific Airlines Ltd. (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 190 destinations in more than 60 countries worldwide including codeshares and joint ventures. Cathay Pacific operates a fleet consisting of Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Airbus A321neo, Airbus A330, Airbus A350, and Boeing 777 aircraft. Cathay Pacific Cargo operates two models of the Boeing 747. Defunct wholly owned subsidiary airline Cathay Dragon, which ceased operations in 2020, previously flew to 44 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base. In 2010, Cathay Pacific and Cathay Pacific Cargo, together with Dragonair (now Cathay Dragon), carried nearly 27 million passengers and over 1.8 million tons of cargo and mail.
History[]
Cathay Pacific Airways was founded on September 24 1946 in Hong Kong. Sydney "Syd" de Kantzow, Roy Farrell, Neil Buchanan, Donald Brittan Evans and Robert "Bob" Stanley Russell were the initial shareholders. Buchanan and Russell already worked for de Kantzow and Farrell at Roy Farrell Import-Export Company, the predecessor of Cathay Pacific, which was initially headquartered in Shanghai. Both de Kantzow and Farrell were ex-air force pilots who had flown the Hump, a route over the Himalayan mountains. Farrell purchased the airline's first aircraft, a Douglas DC-3, nicknamed Betsy, at Bush Field, New York City in 1945. The company began freight services on 28 January 1946 from Sydney to Shanghai, after Farrell and Russell flew the plane to Australia and obtained a license to carry freight (but not passengers) earlier that month. Its first commercial flight was a shipment of Australian goods. The profitable business soon attracted attention from the Republic of China government officials.
In 1997, Cathay Pacific updated the registration numbers and flags on its fleet in conjunction with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.
On 21 September 1998, Cathay Pacific, together with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Qantas, co-founded Oneworld airline alliance.
During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Cathay Pacific employees participated in protests at Hong Kong International Airport. The Beijing government, which is a shareholder in Cathay Pacific, ordered Cathay to suspend any employees who participated in the protest. Cathay chairman, John Slosar, responded saying, "We employ 27,000 staff in Hong Kong doing all sorts of different jobs... we certainly wouldn't dream of telling them what they have to think about something." Cathay Pacific later suspended a pilot who was arrested during a protest, and CEO Rupert Hogg declared his support of the government, and reiterated that employees who violated the company's code of conduct could be dismissed. On 16 August, Hogg resigned due to "intense criticism" from Chinese authorities as a result of Cathay staff participating in the protests. "Chief customer and commercial officer", Paul Loo, also resigned. By late September, Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon had terminated the employment of 31 aviation professionals, or forced their resignations, on the basis of their participation in protests or expressions of support for them.
Logos[]
.webp "Cathay Pacific (1960-1983).webp (3 KB)"){kind=small}
.png "Cathay Pacific (1983-1994).png (47 KB)"){kind=small}
.png "Cathay Pacific (1994-2014).png (63 KB)"){kind=small}
Fleet[]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | J | W | Y | Total | ||||
| Airbus A321-200 | 4 | — | — | 24 | — | 148 | 172 | |
| Airbus A321neo | 5 | 11 | — | 12 | — | 190 | 202 | |
| Airbus A330-300 | 40 | — | — | 39 | 21 | 191 | 251 | |
| 39 | — | 223 | 262 | |||||
| 28 | 265 | 293 | ||||||
| 24 | 293 | 317 | Equipped with regional configuration. | |||||
| Airbus A350-900 | 28 | 2 | — | 38 | 28 | 214 | 280 | Originally ordered 22.
8 orders converted from Airbus A350-1000. |
| Airbus A350-1000 | 15 | 3 | — | 46 | 32 | 256 | 334 | Originally ordered 26.
8 orders converted to Airbus A350-900. |
| Boeing 777-300 | 17 | — | — | 42 | — | 396 | 438 | Launch customer. |
| Boeing 777-300ER | 41 | — | 6 | 53 | 34 | 201 | 294 | |
| — | 40 | 32 | 296 | 368 | ||||
| Boeing 777-9 | — | 21 | TBA | Deliveries deferred to 2025 or later. | ||||
| Total | 150 | 37 | ||||||
References[]
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