Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport.  The airline's operations and subsidiaries have scheduled passenger and cargo services to over 190 destinations and present in more than 60 countries worldwide including codeshares and joint ventures.  Cathay Pacific operates a fleet consisting of Airbus A321, Airbus A321neo, Airbus A330, Airbus A350, and Boeing 777 aircraft.  Cathay Pacific Cargo operates two models of the Boeing 747.  Defunct wholly owned subsidiary airline Cathay Dragon, which ceased operations in 2020, previously flew to 44 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base.  In 2010, Cathay Pacific and Cathay Pacific Cargo, together with Dragonair (then Cathay Dragon), carried nearly 27 million passengers and over 1.8 million tons of cargo and mail.

The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow and American Roy C. Farrell.  The airline celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2016; and as of March 2021, its major shareholders are Swire Pacific, with a 42.3% stake and Air China, with a 28.2% stake.

Cathay Pacific is the world's fifth largest airline measured by sales, and fourteenth largest measured by market capitalization.  In 2010, Cathay Pacific became the world's largest international cargo airline, along with main hub Hong Kong International Airport as the world's busiest airport measured by cargo traffic.  It is one of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance.

Cathay Pacific Airways was founded on 24 September 1946 in Hong Kong. Sydney "Syd" de Kantzow, Roy Farrell, Neil Buchanan, Donald Brittan Evans and Robert "Bob" Stanley Russell were the initial shareholders.  Buchanan and Russell had already worked for de Kantzow and Farrell at Roy Farrell Import-Export Company, the predecessor of Cathay Pacific, that was initially headquartered in Shanghai.  Both de Kantzow and Farrell were Ex-Air Force pilots who had flown The Hump, a route over the Himalayan mountains.  Farrell purchased the airline's first aircraft, a Douglas DC-3, nicknamed Betsy, at Bush Field, New York City in 1945.   The company began freight services on 28 January 1946 from Sydney to Shanghai, after Farrell and Russell flew the plane to Australia and obtained a license to carry freight (but not passengers) earlier that month.   Its first commercial flight was a shipment of Australian goods.   The profitable business soon attracted attention from the Republic of China Government Officials.   After several instances where the company's planes were detained by authorities in Shanghai,  on 11 May 1946 the company relocated, flying its two planes to Hong Kong.  Farrell and de Kantzow re-registered their business in Hong Kong on 24 September 1946 as Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, while another sister company, The Roy Farrell Export Import Company (Hong Kong) Limited, was incorporated on 28 August 1946 and chartered some flights from Cathay.  According to International Directory of Company Histories, two companies were formed for tax purposes.

They named the airline Cathay, the ancient name given to China, and Pacific because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific  (which happened in the 1970s).  Moreover, to avoid the name "Air Cathay" as it had already been used in a comic.   According to legend, the airline's unique name was conceived by Farrell and some foreign correspondents at the bar of the Manila Hotel,  while another narrative was the name was taken in the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai Bund, during drinking and brainstorming, and choosing Cathay was to avoid the word China in the airline name.   On Cathay Pacific's maiden voyage, de Kantzow and Peter Hoskins flew from Sydney to Hong Kong via Manila.   The airline initially flew routes between Hong Kong, Sydney, Manila, Singapore, Shanghai, Saigon, Bangkok,  with additional chartered destinations.  The airline grew quickly.  By 1947, it had added another five DC-3s and two Vickers Catalina seaplanes to its fleet.  

In 1948, a new legal person of Cathay Pacific Airways was incorporated, with John Swire & Sons (now known as Swire Group), China Navigation Company, Australian National Airways being the new shareholders of the new entity, acquiring the assets from the old legal person; the old legal person, was renamed into Cathay Pacific Holdings, as well as retaining 10% shares of the new Cathay Pacific Airways. de Kantzow, Farrell and Russell were the shareholders of Cathay Pacific Holdings at that time.  It was reported that the colonial British government of Hong Kong, required the airline was majority-owned by the British.  Despite de Kantzow being a British subject through his Australian roots, Farrell was an American, thus forcing them to sell their majority stake.  Under Swire's management, de Kantzow remained in the airline until 1951, while Farrell had sold his minority stake in Cathay Pacific soon after Swire's takeover in 1948, due to his wife's health problems.  He returned to Texas and became a successful businessman.  

Swire later acquired 52% of Cathay Pacific Airways.  As of 31 December 2017, the airline is still owned by Swire Group to the extent of 45% through its subsidiary Swire Pacific Limited, as the largest shareholder.  However, Swire Group also formed a shareholders' agreement with the second largest shareholder, Air China (which was controlled by state-owned China National Aviation Holding), which Cathay Pacific and Air China had a cross ownership. 

In the late 1940s, the Hong Kong government divided the local aviation market between Cathay Pacific and its only local competitor, the Jardine Matheson-owned Hong Kong Airways:  Cathay Pacific was allocated routes to the south (including South-East Asia and Australia), while Hong Kong Airways was allocated routes to the north (including mainland China, Korea, and Japan).  The situation changed with the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the Korean War, which reduced the viability of the northern routes.  In 1959, Cathay Pacific acquired Hong Kong Airways, and became the dominant airline in Hong Kong.

Under Swire, another important sister company, HAECO, was established in 1950.  These days, it's one of the major aircraft repair service companies of Hong Kong with divisions in other cities of China.

The airline prospered in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, and it purchased Hong Kong Airways, on 1 July 1959.  Between 1962 and 1967, the airline recorded double digit growth on average every year and became one of the world's first airlines to operate international services to Fukuoka, Nagoya and Osaka in Japan.  In 1964, it carried its one millionth passenger and acquired its first jet engine aircraft, the Convair 880.  In 1967, it became an all-jet airline with the replacement of its last Lockheed L-188 Electra with a Convair 880.  

In the 1970s, Cathay Pacific installed a computerized reservation system and flight simulators.  In 1971, Cathay Pacific Airways received the first Boeing aircraft 707-320B.  By 1972 it had five 707s.  The new aircraft color was known as Brunswick green.   In July 1976 it began operating a Boeing 707 freighter from Hong Kong to Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore.  

In 1974, Cathay Pacific almost purchased the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to open a new flight route.  During the flight route application process with the British government, due to the pressure from the British government, Cathay Pacific changed the application to apply for a route from Hong Kong to London using a Boeing 747.  The application was ultimately rejected.  In 1979, the airline acquired its first Boeing 747 and applied for traffic rights to fly to London in 1980, with the first flight taking place on 16 July.

Expansion continued into the 1980s.  In 1982, Cathay Pacific Airways introduced Cathay Pacific Cargo, which provided cargo service to ingratiate the trend of Hong Kong, becoming one of the largest re-export trading ports of the world.  The airline's long-haul dedicated cargo services started a twice a week with Hong Kong-Frankfurt-London service operated jointly with Lufthansa.  Cathay Pacific kept its service to Vancouver in 1983, with service on to San Francisco in 1986, when an industry-wide boom encouraged route growth to many European and North American centers including London, Brisbane, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Zurich and Manchester. 

On 15 May 1986, the airline went public and was listed in the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.  

In January 1990, Cathay Pacific and its parent company, Swire Pacific, acquired a significant shareholding in Dragonair, and a 75% stake in cargo airline Air Hong Kong in 1994.  In 1994, the airline launched a project to upgrade its passenger service, including a HK$23 million program to update its image. Its logo was updated in 1994 and again in 2014.  

The airline began a fleet replacement program in the mid-1990s, which cost a total of US$9 billion.  In 1996, CITIC Pacific increased its holdings in Cathay Pacific from 10% to 25%, and two other Chinese companies, CNAC(G) and CTS, also bought substantial holdings, while the Swire Group holding was reduced to 44%.  According to the International Directory of Company Histories, the sale of a 12.5% stake of Cathay Pacific by Swire Pacific to a Chinese state-owned company was regarded "as evidence of China's sincerity in maintaining the prosperity of Hong Kong." 

In 1997, Cathay Pacific updated the registration numbers and flags on its fleet in conjunction with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.  On 21 May 1998, Cathay Pacific took the first delivery of the Boeing 777-300 at a ceremony in Everett.  On 21 September 1998, Cathay Pacific, together with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Qantas, co-founded the Oneworld airline alliance.  Cathay Pacific temporarily took over the domestic and international operations of Philippine Airlines during its two-week shutdown from 26 September to 7 October 1998.  The airline was hurt by the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, but recorded a record HK$5 billion profit in 2000. 

On Monday, 6 July 1998, Cathay Pacific terminated flights from Kai Tak International Airport to London Heathrow Airport after over 73 years of operation.  The next day, Cathay Pacific began flights from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport to the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.  This flight was also the world's first nonstop transpolar flight from New York to Hong Kong.  

The year 2000 saw the Cathay Pacific, experience labor relations issues while completing the acquisition of Dragonair.  

On 28 September 2006, the airline underwent a shareholding realignment under which Dragonair became a wholly owned subsidiary but continued to operate under its brand.  Acquiring Dragonair meant gaining more access to the restricted, yet rapidly growing, Mainland China market and more opportunities for sharing of resources. CNAC, and its subsidiary, Air China, acquired a 17.5 percent stake in Cathay Pacific, and the airline doubled its shareholding in Air China to 17.5 percent.  CITIC Pacific reduced its shareholding to 17.5 percent and Swire Group reduced its shareholding to 40 percent.  

Dragonair had originally planned significant international expansion.  It was already operating services to Bangkok and Tokyo, and was to have a dedicated cargo fleet of nine Boeing 747-400BCF aircraft by 2009 operating to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Columbus.  It had also acquired three Airbus A330-300 aircraft to commence services to Sydney and Seoul. 

Following the acquisition by Cathay Pacific, Dragonair's proposed expansion plans underwent a comprehensive route compatibility analysis with the Cathay network to reduce duplication.  Dragonair services to Bangkok and Tokyo were terminated, and new services launched to Sendai, Phuket, Manila, and Kathmandu.  With the merging of similar departments at the two previously separate airlines, some Dragonair staff have had their employment contracts transferred to Cathay Pacific, except Dragonair Pilots and Cabin Crew and others made redundant due to the efficiencies gained in the merger.  This resulted in an approximately 37 percent decrease in the amount of staff contractually employed by Dragonair.

In January 2016, Cathay Pacific announced it was rebranding Dragonair as Cathay Dragon.  

On 21 October 2020, Cathay Pacific announced that it would shut down all operations of Cathay Dragon and merge it with its parent company due to the lack of customers and heavy economic problems brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.  This merger marked the end for the subsidiary carrier after 35 years of operation.  Cathay Pacific and its wholly owned subsidiary, HK Express, would take over Cathay Dragon's existing routes. 

To celebrate the airline's 60th anniversary in 2006, a year of roadshows named the "Cathay Pacific 60th Anniversary Skyshow" was held where the public could see the developments of the airline, play games, meet some of the airline staff, and view vintage uniforms.  Cathay Pacific also introduced anniversary merchandise and in-flight meals served by restaurants in Hong Kong in collaboration with the celebrations. 

In June 2008, Cathay Pacific entered into a plea bargain with the United States Department of Justice in respect of antitrust investigations over air cargo price-fixing agreements.  It was fined US$60 million.  The airline has subsequently set up an internal Competition Compliance Office, reporting to chief operating officer John Slosar, to ensure that the Group complies with all relevant competition and antitrust laws in the jurisdiction in which it operates. The breaches for which Cathay Pacific Cargo were being investigated in the US were not illegal under Hong Kong competition law. 

In September 2008, three of Cathay Pacific's top ten global accounts, Lehmann Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch, hit financial trouble.  

In March 2009, the airline reported a record full-year loss of HK$8.56 billion for 2008, which was also the carrier's first since the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.  The record loss included fuel-hedging losses of HK$7.6 billion and a HK$468 million charge for a price-fixing fine in the US It had to scrap its final dividend.  The hedging losses were a result of locking in fuel prices at higher than the prevailing market price.  As of the end of 2008, Cathay Pacific has hedged about half of its fuel needs until the end of 2011.  The airline at the time estimated that it would face no further cash costs from the hedges if the average market price stood at US$75, enabling it to recoup provisions it made in 2008. 

The flattening out of fuel prices resulted in Cathay Pacific recording a paper fuel hedging gain for its half-year reports for 2009.  However, as a result of the global economic situation, the Group reported an operating loss.  Given the current economic climate, and in line with the steps being taken by other major airlines around the world, the airline has undertaken a comprehensive review of all its routes and operations.  This has resulted in frequencies being reduced to certain destinations, ad hoc cancellations on other routes, deferred capital expenditure, parked aircraft and introduced a Special Leave Scheme for staff to conserve money.  According to CEO Tony Tyler, the yield from passengers was "hugely down" and the airline had lost "a lot of premium traffic".  He noted that it could take 20 passengers in economy to make up for the lost revenue of one fewer first class passenger flying to New York from Hong Kong.  

In 2010, the airline set another record high profit, amounting to HK$14.05 billion despite record losses set in the same decade.  At the same time, Cathay Pacific had taken delivery of several new aircraft types, including the Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 777-300ER.  Tony Tyler left his position as CEO at the airline on 31 March 2010 to pursue his new job at the IATA.  Chief operating officer John Slosar had succeeded as the new CEO.  In addition, New Zealand's Commerce Commission had dropped charges against Cathay Pacific concerning the air cargo price-fixing agreements.  In 2014, the airline underwent the largest network expansion in recent years which included the addition of links to Manchester, Zurich and Boston.

On 8 October 2016, Cathay Pacific retired their last passenger Boeing 747 (a 747-400 with reg B-HUJ) with a farewell scenic flight around Hong Kong after over 35 years of service of the type.  Cathay operated the 747 since August 1979, when it was inaugurated on services to Australia. 

During the first half of 2016, Cathay Pacific's passenger yields fell 10 per cent, to the lowest in seven years as competing airlines from Mainland China increased direct service to the U.S. and Europe, hurting the company's revenue from its Hong Kong hub.  In October, Cathay Pacific scrapped its profit forecast for the second half of the year, less than two months after its issuance.  

From 15 September 2016, Cathay Pacific decided to reintroduce fuel surcharge on many flights after its half-year net profits dropped over 80% and it suffered HK$4.5 billion loss from wrong bets on fuel prices.  As of September 2016, Oil prices were halved from 2014 and stayed below US$50 a barrel. 

Under new leadership, the airline started to transform its business after suffering from 2 years of consecutive loss.  The strategy focuses on 5Ps – Places, Planes, Product, People, and Productivity to find new sources of revenue, deliver more value to its customers and improve efficiency and productivity.  

The airline restructured its organization to be more agile and faster in decision making as well as responding to customers' needs.  It has also launched 13 new routes since 2017, introduced a wide range of changes to its service, including bringing back hot meals on its most busy route between Hong Kong and Taipei, designed an inflight menu that features famous Hong Kong dishes served in all cabins, and revamped its Business Class service proposition to provide more choice, more personalization, better presentation and improved quality in its food and beverages offerings.

The airline has also invested significantly in other hard product and digital offerings such as an upgraded website, new or refurbished lounges across its network, including the first airline lounge yoga studio at The Pier – Business in Hong Kong. Wi-Fi was introduced in 2017 and will be retrofitted across its fleet by 2020.  

In February 2019, the airline issued a profit alert to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange indicating a profit of HK$2.3 billion for the 2018 financial year, signaling early signs of success of its transformation. 

On 27 March 2019, Cathay Pacific officially announced it would acquire HK Express, the only low-cost carrier in Hong Kong, citing to "expect synergies in generating a new business model and is a practical way to support long-term development and to enhance competitiveness". The transaction takes Cathay Pacific HK$4.93 billion total. The transaction is closed in July 2019 and HK Express has become Cathay Pacific's wholly owned subsidiary.  

During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Cathay Pacific employees participated in protests at Hong Kong International Airport.  The Beijing government, which is a shareholder in Cathay Pacific, ordered Cathay to suspend any employees who participated in the protest.  Cathay chairman, John Slosar, responded saying, "We employ 27,000 staff in Hong Kong doing all sorts of different jobs... we certainly wouldn't dream of telling them what they have to think about something."  Cathay Pacific later suspended a pilot who was arrested during a protest, and CEO Rupert Hogg declared his support of the government, and reiterated that employees who violated the company's code of conduct could be dismissed.  On 16 August, Hogg resigned due to "intense criticism" from Chinese authorities as a result of Cathay staff participating in the protests.  "Chief customer and commercial officer", Paul Loo, also resigned.  By late September, Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon had terminated the employment of 31 aviation professionals, or forced their resignations, on the basis of their participation in protests or expressions of support for them.  

The COVID-19 pandemic led to travel bans and significantly reduced flight demands, which caused Cathay Pacific to cut international flights in response.  In 2020, 96% of all flights from March to May were cancelled, while the group's subsidiary HKExpress suspended all flight operations from 23 March to 30 April 2020, due to reduced demand.  At one point during the crisis, only 582 passengers flew with Cathay Pacific in an entire day.  

In December 2020, the company said that it expected losses in the second half higher than the losses of the first half due to low demand, restructuring charges and impairments on its fleet. 

In 2021, the company posted a record annual loss of $2.8 billion for 2020.  It was also announced that the company would cut an additional 8,500 jobs.  

On April 22, 2021, the company began their job cuts by closing their Canada Pilot base, on the same day they began consultation with pilots on Australia and New Zealand Pilot bases regarding base closure in those jurisdictions.  Pilots with the right to live and work in Hong Kong are offered employment, however those without the right to live and work in Hong Kong are to face redundancy.  On the same day, they announced that they will review bases in Europe and USA later in the year.  

On May 12, 2021, the company announced the closing of their Frankfurt Pilot base.  Around 50 pilots' jobs are at risk.  As with the Canada base closed announced two and a half weeks earlier, pilots with the right to live and work in Hong Kong will be offered jobs while those without the right to live and work in Hong Kong will face redundancy.  

In June 2021, the company said that losses in 1H 2021 are expected to be lower than US$1.27 billion in 2020, due to cost-saving measures and strong demand for cargo flights.

On 9 June 2020, Cathay Pacific, Swire Pacific and Air China halted stock trade pending the announcement.  On 10 June, Cathay Pacific and the Government of Hong Kong jointly announced a HK$39 billion recapitalization plan and rescue package for Cathay Pacific.  In the rescue package, the Government of Hong Kong will be issued HK$19.5 billion dividend-paying preference shares and HK$1.95 billion of warrants, giving it 6% stake. The stake of the three major stakeholders, Swire Pacific, Air China and Qatar Airways will fall to 42%, 28% and 9.4% due to the government stake.  Also, Cathay Pacific will receive a HK$7.8 billion bridging loan and the Government would have the right to appoint two observers on Cathay's board.  Finance Secretary of HKSAR Government, Paul Chan, said "It is not our intention to become a long-term shareholder of Cathay Pacific."