Cathay celebrates milestone 40 years in Sydney
Cathay Pacific cemented its place in Australian aviation history, celebrating in style to mark four decades of non-stop services between Sydney and Hong Kong at the Sydney Opera House last night.
In the four decades, the carrier has flown over 10 million passengers between the two cities, carried over one million tonnes of freight and ramped up services from just three flights a week to four a day offering connections to over 200 destinations beyond Hong Kong.
Around 100 trade partners attended the lavish event, including the airline’s director corporate development, James Barrington, who flew in from Hong Kong for the occasion.
“Forty years is an incredibly long time and we are incredibly grateful to Australians for their long support of what was then quaintly described as an ‘Oriental’ airline,” Barrington said.
“Sydney is an incredibly important part of our network and our growth has been very steady over the years. From the Boeing 707, we have seen many types of aircraft deployed on the route including 747s, Airbus A330s and from later this year, we will add a 777-300ER which will increase our capacity.”
!["Cathay-Business-Class.jpg"]("~/getattachment/News/Cathay-celebrates-milestone-40th-in-Sydney/Cathay-Business-Class.jpg.aspx" "\"Cathay-Business-Class.jpg\"")
Barrington said the airline business had changed considerably in forty years, in particular the size of operations and aircraft efficiencies, citing the price of a round-trip economy ticket in 1974 being $657 compared to the airline’s current price of $853.
“Air travel has come a long way since those early days. Forty years ago, we offered two classes of service – First and Economy – Business Class simply hadn’t been invented. More recently still we have introduced premium economy class which has been well received,” Barrington said.
Looking forward, the biggest transformation for the airline business according to Barrington has been changes in technology, and airlines that have been able to leverage the increasing cost of fuel with more efficient ‘new’ aircraft instead of “four engine gas guzzlers”.
He said carrier’s survival will become increasingly evident in the future between “who’s got new kit and who’s got old kit that will be subsidised by the government or go out of business”. Barrington added that Cathay was on track to get “far more efficient long haul” 777-300 ER aircraft, amongst other more fuel efficient jets, which had been its strategy over the past few years.
Cathay Pacific has a long standing history with Australia, as it was founded by Sydney de Kantzow, an Australian, almost 70 years ago, along with his American friend Roy Farrell.
!["New_CATHAY1.jpg"]("~/getattachment/News/Cathay-celebrates-milestone-40th-in-Sydney/New_CATHAY1.jpg.aspx" "\"New_CATHAY1.jpg\"")
Picture caption: Forty years ago Captain Hal Dyball (then First Officer) walked down Sydney’s Martin Place as part of a photo shoot to promote Cathay Pacific’s new service Sydney to Hong Kong that began on 21 October 1974. Fast forward to yesterday and Captain Dyball (retired) was joined by six Cathay Pacific flight attendants dressed in the airline’s uniforms through the decades as they paraded through Martin Place.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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