Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub at Hong Kong International Airport. Together with its subsidiaries it runs scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 190 destinations in over 60 countries, counting codeshares and joint ventures. The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by the Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow and the American Roy C. Farrell, and as of May 2026 its major shareholders are Swire Pacific and Air China.

AirlineRatings.com places Cathay Pacific No. 2 in its World's Best Airlines for 2026 list in the full-service category. The carrier is also a regular name in the Skytrax awards: as of 2025, Skytrax rated it a 5-star airline and the third-best airline in the world. At the 2026 Skytrax World Airline Awards it was again placed among the top three, alongside awards for World's Best Cabin Crew and World's Best First Class Airline Lounge.

The airline's name reflects its founders' ambitions: Cathay is the ancient name for China, and Pacific was chosen because Farrell expected the airline to fly across that ocean one day, which it did in the 1970s. Its Chinese name comes from an idiom meaning "Peace and Prosperity". Today's passenger fleet consists of Airbus A321neo, A330 and A350 aircraft and Boeing 777s, while Cathay Cargo flies two models of the Boeing 747 freighter. Cathay Pacific is also one of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance.

Sources of this text: Wikipedia · AirlineRatings.com · Cathay Pacific (official site)