The headquarters of Cathay Pacific Airways are found in Hong Kong. Home-airport of the company is Hong Kong International Airport. The airline serves 120 destinations throughout the world, a pretty extensive network. It's one of the six airlines that received a five star rating by Skytrax. Cathay was airline of the year in 2003 and 2005. The firm has the most modern aircraft in its fleet.

Cathay Pacific Airways was founded in Hong Kong, on September 24, 1946. It's established by two men: the American Roy Farrel and the Australian Sydney de Kantzow. Both guys were former airforce pilots, initially stations in Sjanghai. To start the airline, they needed to move to Hong Kong. They always flew a route over the Himalaya. They needed the symbolic sum of one HongKong-dollar to register the new airline. According to some story, the men decided on a name of their company in a pub. Cathay is derived from the word Khitan, the medieval name for China. The two friends added Pacific to the name, because they thought they'd cross the Pacific Ocean once. The airline grew quickly. In 1948, one of the biggest trading companies of Hong Kong, Butterfield & Swire, bought 45% of the company. In the sixties, seventies and eighties, the firm expanded very fast. Rival Hong Kong Airways was bought in 1959. The millionth passenger boarded already in 1962.

In 2006, Cathay Pacific Airways celebrated its sixtieth birthday. Because of that, special shows in which the development of the company was shown were organised. Cathay Pacific Airways owns a subsidiary, Dragonair, that flies most of the domestic flights. But it's no rarity when a cargo-747 touches down on Schiphol. Dragonair and Cathay Pacific Airways transported their 23 millionth passenger in 2007.