Top award for Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific, an airline dear to the hearts of Western Australians, has just been named airline of the year by the industry’s leading journal – Washington DC based Air Transport World (ATW) at a gala dinner in Singapore.

Cathay is also celebrating 60 years since Roy Farrell and Syd de Kantzow created the airline in Hong Kong with a converted DC-3 named ‘Betsy’.

From its beginnings, in what was then a war-ravaged colonial outpost, Cathay Pacific Airways now reigns as one of the world’s largest and most profitable airlines, operating more than 1,250 weekly departures, serving 92 destinations worldwide with an all-widebody fleet of 95 aircraft.

According to ATW: “Cathay Pacific is respected and admired among peers for its unwavering commitment to safety, technical excellence and customer service.”

But it hasn’t always been clear skies.

ATW said in its February edition that: “In an era dominated by state-owned and supported airlines, Cathay had to battle for a place at the international table against heavy-weights like BOAC and its successor British Airways, while remaining mindful of shifting geopolitical and cultural currents in Hong Kong and China.

“More recently, its history reads like an aviation version of the ‘Perils of Pauline’, encompassing the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis, avian flu, the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, the bumpy transition to the new Hong Kong International Airport in 1998 from the legendary Kai Tak site and 2003’s devastating SARS outbreak, during which some of its flights operated with more cabin crew than passengers.”

However, through all that adversity, Cathay has soared, losing money only once in the past decade, and staying in the black over all four years in spite of the impact of 9/11 and SARS.

Cathay’s consistent financial success translates into one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with a net debt/equity ratio of 0.33.

Secrets to Cathay’s success have been its in-flight product and its staff productivity and loyalty.

The airline is recognised to be at the forefront of cabin innovation. In the past 10 years, staff productivity has jumped by 72 per cent and management has rewarded that effort by paying all staff through the SARS crisis, despite asking them to go on leave.

Passengers in its long-haul first class cabin are cocooned in fully lie-flat seat/beds with audio/video-on-demand presented through 26-centimetre TV screens with noise-cancelling headphones. Seats have in-seat PC power.

Long-haul business class has angled near lie-flat comfort with the same audio/video on demand.

Last year, Cathay completed installation of its Netvigator in-flight email service across the entire fleet for first and business classes and the first 10 rows of economy.

Growth is on the radar at Cathay with the order late last year of 36 777-300ERs.

Cathay started services to Perth – its first Australian destination in the modern era – in 1970 with a weekly service with the 103-seat Convair 880.

Today, the airline offers a four times weekly 270-seat A330 service with connections across the globe.