Cathay Group

An Airbus A350 with a green brushstroke on the tail on approach to Frankfurt, a purple A321neo on its way to Osaka, a Boeing 747-8F lifting off at night in Hong Kong: all three belong to the Cathay Group, Hong Kong’s largest aviation group. As with the Qantas Group, there is no separate holding company above the airlines – Cathay Pacific is both group parent and best-known brand. For your sightings, that means: behind the callsign CPA there can be a passenger jet or a freighter, behind a Hong Kong A320 a low-cost subsidiary and behind an A330 freighter in DHL colors also a group operation.

From the DC-3 to a global airline

The story begins shortly after the Second World War. On September 24, 1946, the American Roy Farrell and the Australian Sydney de Kantzow, both former military pilots, founded Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong. “Cathay” is an old name for China commonly used in the West, and “Pacific” stood for the ambition to one day fly across the Pacific. The first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3 nicknamed “Betsy” – it is on display today at the Hong Kong Science Museum. If you want to know more about this classic, you will find it in the article on the history of the DC-3.

As early as 1948, a partner joined who has shaped the airline to this day: when the company was re-established, the trading house John Swire & Sons came in. The Swire group has been the dominant shareholder ever since. In the following decades, Cathay grew with the city: in 1962 the Convair 880 brought the first jet aircraft, from 1975 the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, of which Cathay operated one of the largest fleets outside the US. Later, the Boeing 747 and, from 1996, the Airbus A340-300 defined the long-haul picture.

On May 15, 1986, Cathay Pacific went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Until 1998, home was the legendary Kai Tak Airport with its notorious approach over the rooftops of Kowloon – the story of this approach is told in the article Kai Tak. In the night leading into July 6, 1998, operations moved to the new Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport. There, the group is based today in Cathay City, directly on the airport grounds.

The group’s airlines at a glance

The Cathay Group today operates with three flight operations and four visible brands. For your logbook, the separation matters, because brand and operator are not always the same – Cathay Cargo, for example, is a brand but not a separate airline. How groups build such brand families is explained in the article Multi-brand strategies of airlines.

All four fly from the same hub, Hong Kong Airport. Unlike at many European groups, there is no second home base – if you want to see the whole group in one day, you have to go to Chek Lap Kok. What distinguishes callsign and flight number is explained in the article Callsign and flight number.

Cathay Pacific: the Brushwing over Hong Kong

Cathay Pacific is the core of the group. The business model lives on connections: passengers from Europe, North America and Australia change in Hong Kong onto flights to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia or mainland China – and vice versa. That is why the long-haul fleet is large and short haul is mainly feeder. After the pandemic, Cathay has rebuilt its network to more than 100 destinations.

Cathay Pacific has been part of oneworld since 1999. Together with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines and Qantas, Cathay had announced the alliance in September 1998. That is why Cathay has a long partnership with Qantas and the International Airlines Group on routes between Europe, Asia and Australia. A detail for collectors: Cathay has painted a 777-300ER in oneworld livery. The article Alliance liveries shows which alliance liveries exist.

On July 6, 1998, the first day of operations at Chek Lap Kok, Cathay was the first airline to fly nonstop over the North Pole from New York to Hong Kong. Such ultra-long-haul routes to North America remain part of the profile to this day. In Europe, you see Cathay Pacific in Frankfurt and London-Heathrow, among other places; which other destinations are currently scheduled changes with the seasons. In recent years, Cathay has expanded its European network, including connections to Munich and Brussels – check the current status before your trip.

Cathay Cargo: jumbos under their own brand

Hong Kong has been one of the largest cargo airports in the world for years, and Cathay is the most important home-based airline there in cargo. Cathay Cargo is not a separate company but the cargo brand of Cathay Pacific. Until 2023, the freighters read “Cathay Pacific Cargo”; since then the larger “Cathay Cargo” lettering has adorned the fuselage. Since 2013, cargo has been handled at the company’s own Cathay Cargo Terminal at the airport.

The freighter fleet consists of two jumbo variants: the Boeing 747-8F with the longer fuselage and the serrated engine cowlings, and the older 747-400ERF. As of the end of 2025, there were 14 747-8Fs and six 400ERFs. As the successor to the 400ERF, Cathay has ordered the Airbus A350F. If you want jumbo freighters in Cathay colors, you therefore still have a few years – but not unlimited. How to identify freighters in general is shown in the article Identifying freighters.

In addition, a large part of the cargo travels as belly cargo in the passenger jets. Cathay also works in joint ventures with other cargo airlines, such as Air China Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo, later expanded to include Swiss WorldCargo.

HK Express: the purple low-cost affiliate

HK Express is the youngest brand in the group. The company was founded in 2004 and began flight operations in 2005 – back then still with Embraer E170 regional jets. For a time it belonged to the orbit of the Chinese HNA group; in 2013 it was converted into a low-cost carrier and renamed HK Express. In March 2019, Cathay announced the takeover, and by July 2019 it was completed. Since then, HK Express has been a wholly owned subsidiary but deliberately presents itself as an independent budget airline. The basics of this business model are explained in the article How low-cost carriers work.

The fleet consists exclusively of the A320 family: classic A320s and A321s as well as the newer A320neo and A321neo. In mid-2026, around 40 aircraft were in service, with more on order. The article A320neo or ceo? shows how to tell the variants apart.

The network concentrates on destinations a few flight hours away: Japan with Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and smaller cities, South Korea with Seoul, Busan and Jeju, plus Southeast Asia and mainland China. For spotters in Europe, HK Express is thus a pure travel sighting – you catch the purple jets in Hong Kong, at airports like Tokyo-Narita, Seoul-Incheon or Bangkok.

Air Hong Kong: cargo in the DHL network

Air Hong Kong was founded in 1986 by three Hong Kong businesspeople and initially flew a Boeing 707 on charter service. Cathay came in with 75 percent in 1994 and took over the rest in 2002. Shortly afterward, DHL took a 40 percent stake; in the late 2010s, Cathay bought that stake back. Air Hong Kong has since been a pure group subsidiary again but continues to fly an express cargo network in Asia for DHL.

The fleet has changed significantly recently. For decades, the Airbus A300-600F shaped the picture; in 2025 the last examples left the fleet. Today Air Hong Kong flies A330-300P2Fs, meaning converted former passenger jets, and A330-200Fs. Many of them carry DHL elements in yellow and red – the operator is still Air Hong Kong. The callsign AHK in the ADS-B signal confirms it.

Cathay Dragon: the vanished subsidiary

If you go through older Hong Kong photos, you come across another group airline. Dragonair was founded on May 24, 1985, and started in July 1985 with a Boeing 737-200 from Kai Tak to Kota Kinabalu. Cathay came in in 1990, and in 2006 Dragonair became a wholly owned subsidiary. The airline flew regional routes to mainland China and Asia, most recently with A320, A321 and A330-300. Its codes were KA and HDA, and the callsign was DRAGON.

In 2016, Dragonair was renamed Cathay Dragon and painted in a hybrid design that combined Cathay Pacific’s lettering and tail with a reddish tone. The new brand didn’t last long: on October 21, 2020, Cathay announced the immediate end of flight operations as part of the pandemic restructuring. The routes went to Cathay Pacific and HK Express. Photos with Dragonair or Cathay Dragon titles are thus closed archive pieces – mark them accordingly in your logbook.

Owners and crisis years

The Cathay Group is listed but shaped by two major shareholders. The largest shareholder is Swire Pacific, part of the Swire group, which has held a stake in the airline since 1948. The second-largest shareholder is Air China. Today’s structure goes back to a reorganization in 2006: Dragonair was fully taken over, Air China took a stake in Cathay, and Cathay in turn took a stake in Air China. Air China now holds just under 30 percent. Qatar Airways also held a stake of around ten percent from 2017 but has withdrawn again.

The pandemic hit Hong Kong especially hard because the city kept its borders closed for a long time. In 2020, the government put together a rescue package of around 39 billion Hong Kong dollars, including through preferred shares and a bridge loan. The government stressed at the time that it did not want to become a permanent shareholder. In the same year, Cathay cut thousands of jobs and closed Cathay Dragon. Ronald Lam has led the group since 2023, and it has since been back on a growth course.

You shouldn’t confuse the group with the maintenance company HAECO, which you see at the hangars on the airport island. It also belongs to the Swire orbit but is not part of the Cathay Group.

A fleet in transition: what still flies

The Cathay Group is in the middle of a fleet renewal. For you as a spotter, that means: some types in the Brushwing livery are especially worthwhile right now. The following numbers come from fleet overviews as of the end of 2025 and may already have changed through deliveries, retirements or delays.

Widebodies: The A350 in both versions and the 777-300ER form the backbone. The 777-300ER is powered by the GE90 from GE, the A350 by the Trent XWB from Rolls-Royce. Especially interesting is the 777-300 without the ER suffix: a type that is now rarely seen worldwide and flies at Cathay mainly within Asia. How to tell the 777 variants from the 787 is shown in the article Telling the Boeing 777 and 787 apart, and the A350 from the 787 in the article A350 or Boeing 787?.

Successors: For the Boeing 777-9 with its folding wingtips, Cathay has reordered several times; because of the delays in certification, the first deliveries are expected in 2027 at the earliest. The 30 A330-900s on order are to replace the older A330-300s from 2028. In terms of manufacturers, the group thus continues to rely on both big names, Airbus and Boeing.

History: The passenger 747 has been history at Cathay since October 8, 2016; in total, the airline flew 26 examples of the 747-400. The A340-300 left the fleet in 2017. You can read more about the 747 generations in the article Boeing 747-100 to 747-8.

How to determine the right operator

Especially with cargo and low-cost, a quick glance easily leads you astray. These steps lead you to a solid sighting.

Liveries: Brushwing, Cargo and special designs

Cathay Pacific’s trademark is the Brushwing, a green brushstroke reminiscent of a bird’s wing. It was introduced in the early 1990s, and the first aircraft to carry it was a Boeing 747-400 with the registration VR-HOT. On November 1, 2015, the airline presented a revised version of the design, which has since appeared on new and repainted aircraft. Differences between the older and newer versions are useful for dating your photos.

Besides the oneworld livery, Cathay has repeatedly sent special liveries into the air, for example for anniversaries. HK Express, with its purple look, is a splash of color on the apron anyway. The guide Finding special liveries shows how to track down such aircraft, and the article Retro liveries provides background on retro designs.

Spotting Cathay in Europe

Without a long-distance trip, you mainly get Cathay Pacific and occasionally Cathay Cargo in your viewfinder. In Frankfurt, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a proven location, and the Frankfurt guide collects tips for the whole airport. In London-Heathrow, Hatton Cross and Myrtle Avenue are the classics, often with several oneworld long-haul jets within an hour.

Compared with European groups like the Lufthansa Group, the Cathay Group is compactly built: one network airline, one low-cost subsidiary, one cargo brand and one cargo airline – all at one hub. That makes it easy to follow, but for Europeans also a destination for which the trip to Hong Kong is eventually worthwhile.

Conclusion

The Cathay Group is a group with four faces: Cathay Pacific with the green Brushwing on long haul and connecting traffic, Cathay Cargo with jumbo freighters, HK Express in purple for low-cost traffic in Asia and Air Hong Kong with A330 freighters in the DHL network. If you read livery, fuselage titles, callsign and type together, you assign every sighting correctly. And if you still want to capture the 777-300, the A330-300 or the 747-400ERF in Cathay colors, you should use the next few years – before the 777-9, A330-900 and A350F define the picture.