Cathay Pacific Airways is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place.[1] The airline's operations include scheduled passenger and cargo services to 114 destinations in 36 countries worldwide, including codeshares and joint ventures, with a fleet of 126 wide-body aircraft, consisting of Airbus A330s and A340s, Boeing 747s and 777s. The airline also operates fifth freedom flights from Bangkok and Taipei, its major focus cities. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Dragonair, operates to 29 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base. In 2009, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair operated 56,000 flights, carrying nearly 25 million passengers and over 1.52 billion kg of cargo and mail.
The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, with each man putting up HK$1 to register the airline. The airline made the world's first non-stop transpolar flight flying over the North Pole in July 1998, and it also operated the maiden flight to arrive at the new Hong Kong International Airport. The airline celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006; and as of October 2009, its major shareholders are Swire Pacific and Air China. It is reciprocally one of the major shareholders of Air China.