Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay Pacific Airways is Hong Kong's flag carrier, headquartered at Hong Kong International Airport, which is also its main hub. It was registered in Hong Kong on 24 September 1946 by the former air force pilots Sydney de Kantzow and Roy Farrell, both of whom had flown the Himalayan route known as The Hump. As of May 2026 Swire Pacific and Air China are its major shareholders.

Skytrax ranks Cathay Pacific No. 3 in its World's Top 100 Airlines for 2026. As of 2025, Skytrax also rated it a 5-star airline.

The company's first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3 nicknamed Betsy, bought in New York in 1945, and its early routes linked Hong Kong with Sydney, Manila, Singapore, Shanghai, Saigon and Bangkok. By 1947 it had added five more DC-3s and two Catalina seaplanes. Today it is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance, and with its subsidiaries it serves more than 190 destinations in over 60 countries. In 2010 Cathay Pacific, Cathay Cargo and Cathay Dragon together carried nearly 27 million passengers and more than 1.8 million tons of cargo and mail.

Sources of this text: Wikipedia · Skytrax