Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline"s registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Dragonair, operates to 30 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base. Its major shareholders are Swire Pacific and Air China. It is reciprocally one of the major shareholders of Air China. Cathay Pacific currently holds the title of the world"s third largest airline, measured in terms of market capitalization, according to the International Air Transport Association. In 2010, Cathay Pacific became the world"s largest international cargo airline. Cathay Pacific is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance, with its subsidiary, Dragonair, as an affiliate member. Cathay Pacific is one of the seven airlines to be ranked as a 5-star airline by Skytrax.

History

Cathay Pacific was founded on September 24, 1946 by American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, with each man putting up HK$1 to register the airline. In 1948 Butterfield & Swire (now known as Swire Group) bought 45% of Cathay Pacific, with Australian National Airways taking 35% and Farrell and de Kantzow taking 10% each. The new company began operations on 1 July 1948 and was registered as Cathay Pacific Ltd on 18 October 1948. Swire later acquired 52% of Cathay Pacific. The next 30 years from 1960 was the time of expansion.

The airline prospered in late 1950s and into the 1960s by buying its archrival, Hong Kong Airways, on 1 July 1959. Expansion continued into the 1980s, with nonstop service to Vancouver in 1983, with continuing service on to San Francisco in 1986 when an industry-wide boom encouraged route growth to many European and North American centres. On 15 May 1986, the airline went public and listed in the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 1990s was the time for rebranding and renewal with fleet replacement program.

The 2000s saw Cathay Pacific experience labor relations issues, and complete the acquisition of Dragonair. In 2010, the airline set another record high profit, amounting to HK$14.048 billion despite record losses set in the same decade.

Main route

The airline"s operations include scheduled passenger and cargo services to 114 destinations in 36 countries worldwide, including codeshares and joint ventures. The airline also operates fifth freedom flights from Bangkok and Taipei, its focus cities.

Fleet

The airline operates a fleet of 106 wide-body aircrafts, consisting of Airbus 33 A330-300, 11 Airbus A340-300E, 21 Boeing 747-400, 5 Boeing 777-200, 12 Boeing 777-300 and 24 Boeing 777-300ER