Cathay Pacific Airways celebrates 75th anniversary
My first flight to Hong Kong was as a teenager with my parents aboard a Pan American jet.
My first flight to Hong Kong was as a teenager with my parents aboard a Pan American jet. There were “stewardesses” in perky hats serving mysterious things called martinis to the grown-ups, I had a window seat and screamed inwardly as we approached Kai Tak Airport via the tops of apartment blocks that stood tall and slender, like filing cabinets.
It seemed as if we were about to hoist washing from the clotheslines on the roofs to be flown like victory pennants on the wings as we landed almost vertically on the short runway. Years later, pilot friends would tell me it was the world’s “dodgiest” approach. Today’s arrivals at Chek Lap Kok, sprawled over reclaimed land, seem boring in comparison.
Hong Kong flag-carrier Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) is celebrating its 75th anniversary, which has brought back a cargo of memories from my short journalist exchange stint working in the then British territory and many flights around that time and thereafter. In 1946, the first freight service (“export of woollens” screeched the headlines) between Australia and China subsequently led to the creation of CX, headquartered in Hong Kong. The fledgling airline carried goods from Sydney aboard a DC3 propeller plane called Betsy, which was restored in the 80s and is a key exhibit at the Hong Kong Science Museum. Nine Convair aircraft were added between 1962 and 1974, a period that marked the first passenger flight from Australia to Hong Kong, departing Perth via Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur in 1970. Four years later, the inaugural Hong Kong-Sydney direct service was operated by a Boeing 707.
Among other milestones, CX introduced flat-bed seats as early as 1999 and online check-in by 2001, and is the world’s first airline to invest in a biofuel manufacturer. During Covid, cargo services have been ramped up, and fleet additions announced, including more Airbus A350, A321neo and Boeing 777-9 models.
I find it cheering in this era of land-bound Covid to imagine a future that includes tucking into a virtuous dish of Chinese plant-based pork noodles (yes, it’s a thing) at high altitude and remembering my parents, both now gone, as Hong Kong appears through the clouds.
CX anniversary memorabilia now on sale.
lifestyle.asiamiles.com