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 stringent travel bans in the world. Therefore what was one of the main names of civil aviation suddenly found itself lagging behind its competition in the post pandemic world. Profits took a hit and so did the onboard product. Some fleet restructuring was also necessary to get the airline moving towards recovering profits and passenger volumes. So let’s take a look at what the Cathay Pacific fleet in 2023.
- Passenger Fleet Breakdown
- Cargo Fleet Breakdown
The Cathay Pacific Passenger Fleet in 2023
The way the Cathay Pacific‘s fleet is built gives us more than one clue on the operations of the Hong Kong based carrier. However before further analysing the fleet structure here’s a complete rundown of what aircraft types the airline is currently operating.
| 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 |
As you can see in the chart below, as of July 2023, the most common plane in the Cathay Pacific fleet is the Airbus A330-300. This is an extremely versatile plane, capable of serving long range routes or high capacity short to medium range sectors. A plane that fits in perfectly with the many long range sectors the airline serves along with the many Asian high capacity sectors Cathay operates day in and day out.
The next most common planes are the ULR capable Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A350-900 and A350-1000. These are the planes that the airline will use for all its flights to the United States and Europe.
Finally there’s the tiny narrow body division of the fleet. Cathay Pacific’s fleet has only recently been incorporating more single aisle planes, taking delivery of the ultra-modern Airbus A321neo. This aircraft type will allow the airline to operate in an efficient manner medium range flights to destinations with a limited demand where it wouldn’t make sense to deploy a wide body.
The Cathay Cargo Fleet in 2023
Moving on to the the Cathay Cargo division, the fleet composition is more simple and streamlined but still very interesting. What makes the Cathay Cargo fleet interesting is the fact that the carrier uses only Boeing 747s in 2 variants for its operations.
Currently, as of July 2023, Cathay Cargo’s fleet features:
| Manufacturer | Type | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing | 747-8F | 14 |
| Boeing | 747-400F | 6 |
The Cathay cargo division is one of the few airlines to operate the Boeing 747-8 albeit in its 8F freighter version.
