Cathay Pacific’s 70 years

Now commonly known as CX, Cathay Pacific was founded on 24 September 1946 by Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow and American Roy C. Farrell, each putting up HK$1 to register the airline. The Pacific campaign had just ended. Two war-surplus DC3s were purchased.

The airline’s first commercial flight was in January 1947 from Sydney to Shanghai, with a shipment of clothes.  How things have changed.

Today, as part of the Swire Group the airline offers 168 destinations in 42 countries and has won numerous awards for the quality of its service.

The airline’s current fleet numbers around 120 aircraft with its final passenger Boeing 747 leaving ceremoniously last weekend. Cathay is a lead carrier for the 777X. The 747 freighter remains as the core aircraft of its cargo fleet, the airline now having completed an order for eight of the stretched Dash-8 version.

CX has been flying to the UK since 1980 and now has 43 non-stop flights from Hong Kong per week, five dailies to Heathrow and four days each to Manchester and the new Gatwick service (see BTN 5 September).

In Europe, Cathay is particularly strong, offering HK as a gateway to China daily from Amsterdam, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Milan and Rome, adding last year Zurich (seven days per week) and Dusseldorf (four), plus Madrid (four) in 2016.

http://cathaypacific.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum