Things are finally starting to look a little brighter for Hong Kong’s main airline Cathay Pacific. The airline has just announced its traffic figures for the month...
Cathay Pacific News and Insights
Cathay Pacific is one of the most iconic names in world aviation. The airline has come a long way and has established itself is both Asia and across the globe as a major player in aviation, offering convenient connections to anywhere in the world.
Today we got a glimpse into what Cathay Pacific‘s future business class will look like. Finally one of the giants of Asian aviation, still on the road to full...
Although Cathay Pacific only serves 2 Canadian cities, the agreement with Neo Financial we’re about to talk about lets transpire how important of a market it is to...
Cathay Pacific has been one of the hardest hit and most affected airlines by covid in the world. Few places that depend heavily on travel like Hong Kong had more...
Over the past week, when the world’s attention was attracted by the Paris Air Show, Cathay Pacific released its passenger traffic figures for May 2023. The Hong...
When Was Cathay Pacific's First Flight?
Cathay along with being one of the most famous legacy airlines out there is also one of the oldest major carriers still active. The airline was founded as far back as September 24th 1946. With the first flights being operated by a Douglas DC-3 nicknamed Betsy. As of July 2023 Betsy is on display in Hong Kong's Science Museum.Founders of the airline where American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow.
Where is Cathay Pacific Based?
The airline has been always considered to be the flag carrier of Hong Kong, although the city is only a special administrative region and not a sovereign country.
The airline is currently based in Hong Kong's International Airport, the city's new airport that took over after the much beloved by AvGeeks Kai Tak airport closed down in 1998.
Cathay Pacific operates all of its flights from and to HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport).
Who Owns Cathay Pacific?
Ownership of the airline is split mainly among 3 big entities:
- Swire, relative majority stake holder with 42%
- Air China holding 28%
- Qatar Airways holding 9.5%
As the largest share holder in the airline Swire also applies its logo on Cathay's planes. You can see the logo and name of the parent company just forward of the tail fin complex on every CX airliner.
Which Alliance Is Cathay Pacific Part of?
The Hong Kong based airline is one of 5 founding members of the OneWorld alliance which was set up in 1999. With Canadian Airlines International no longer existing CX is one of 4 still active founding members of the OneWorld alliance.
The other founding members of the alliance being:
- Qantas
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Canadian Airlines International (no longer operational)
The Cathay Passenger Fleet
Cathay Pacific's fleet features a great number of wide body aircraft. This is no surprise as many routes the airline flies are either ULRs or high demand and capacity ones. Therefore in many occasions the use of a wide body plane is a necessity. The only single aisle narrow body planes are the Airbus A321 in both ceo and neo variants.
CX is one of the few airlines to use the original 777-300 variant, still having 10 operational in its fleet. It also operates a much larger number (33) of the more common 777-300ER variant.
| Manufacturer | Type | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
 Airbus | A330-300 | 34 |
 Boeing | 777-300ER | 33 |
| Airbus | A350-900 | 28 |
| Airbus | A350-1000 | 18 |
| Airbus | A321neo | 12 |
| Boeing | 777-300 | 10 |
| Airbus | A321-200 | 2 |
The Cathay Cargo Fleet
Cathay Pacific also operates an extensive cargo network under the Cathay Cargo brand which features an all Boeing 747 fleet.
| Manufacturer | Type | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing | 747-8F | 14 |
| Boeing | 747-400F | 6 |
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Where Does Cathay Currently Fly?
As of July 2023 the airline operates scheduled services to:
- Australia & New Zealand
- Asia
- Middle East
- Europe
- North America
How Many Passengers Does Cathay Pacific Carry?
Cathay Pacific was one of the airlines which suffered the most from the covid outbreak. Hong Kong, along with mainland China, had some of the most harsh restrictions in the world when it comes to travel. Therefore the airline has been struggling to make its way back to its prior glory. Month after month though figures have been giving Cathay a reason to be hopeful looking to the future.Number of passengers transported per month of the year:
| Year | Month | Passengers Transported | Load Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | May | 1.417.906 | 85,1% |
| 2023 | June | 1.548.571 | 87,7% |
| 2023 | July | 1.744.374 | 89,3% |
| 2023 | August | 1.784.980 | 88,0% |
Which Airlines Are Part of The Group?
Cathay Pacific, apart from its cargo division, controls other two standalone airlines as well. One cargo and one low cost carrier. Specifically these are:
- HK Express - Low Cost Carrier
- Air Hong Kong - All Cargo Airline