Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. provides flight services, air cargo services, airline catering, aircraft handling, and engineering services. The company operates its business through two segments: Airline Business and Non-Airline Business. The Airline Business segment comprises passenger and cargo operations. The Non-Airline Business segment engages in the catering, ground handling, and aircraft ramp handling services. The company was founded by Roy C. Farrell and Sydney H. de Kantzow on September 24, 1946, and is headquartered in Hong Kong.“
“Cathay Pacific Airways History
Those Were the Days
American Roy C Farrell and Australian Sydney H de Kantzow founded Cathay Pacific Airways on 24 September, 1946. Initially based in Shanghai, the two men eventually moved to Hong Kong and established the airline. Legend has it that Farrell and a group of foreign correspondents thought up the airline’s unique name in the bar at the Manila Hotel!
An Investment In the Future
The new company began to operate passenger flights to Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, and Shanghai. The expansion was fast and, in 1948, one of Hong Kong’s leading trading companies, Butterfield & Swire (today known as the Swire Group) took a 45% share in the company. Under the leadership of John Kidston Swire, Butterfield & Swire became wholly responsible for the management of the airline.
Taking the Jet Age By Storm
The 1960s represented our coming of age. Between 1962 and 1967, the business grew at an average rate of 20 percent a year. We also initiated international services (another world’s first) to Osaka, Fukuoka, and Nagoya in Japan.
The Old and Only “Betsy”
“Betsy”, a converted Douglas DC3, is fondly remembered as our first aircraft. Sold in 1955, “Betsy” was discovered, almost 30 years later flying cargo around the Australian outback.
We bought the aircraft back, repainted her in the original 1940s livery and returned her to Hong Kong.
Today, “Betsy” hangs suspended from the ceiling at the Hong Kong Science Museum.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Cathaypacific.com
**Video published on YouTube by “JeanLouisAviation“
