Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific and Australia have a long history together, going back almost to the airline’s birth in 1948, when Sydney de Kantzow, an Australian, and Roy Farrell, an American, founded what would become a titan in the airline industry for the purpose of transporting goods from the Great Southern Land into China. In 1959, the airline begin service to Darwin and Sydney with Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop airliners, followed by iet service with the Convair CV-880 to Perth in 1970 and the Boeing 707-300 to Sydney in 1974. Since then, every flagship of the airline has traveled down under, in many cases being among the final long-haul destinations for them. Today, Cathay Pacific provides passenger service to 5 Australian cities on a year-round or seasonal basis (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Cairns), to be joined by Adelaide in December of this year. With this history in mind, Cathay Pacific is almost as much of an Aussie airline as it is a Hong Kong one. To commemorate that history, we’re traveling to Sydney aboard another of the airline’s A350-900s.
Server: Solo
Airline: Cathay Pacific
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong (HKG)
Destination: Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Mascot, Australia (SYD)
Flight Number: CX111
Route: VHHH-YSSY
Seat: 17K (Business)
Time En Route: 8 Hours 43 Minutes
Waiting to board our aircraft at Gate 27 in Hong Kong at dusk
Taxiing to Runway 25R for takeoff under the watchful eyes of Hong Kong Tower. The men and women who work here supervise the movement of over 53 million passengers and 5 million tons of cargo, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Taking off from HKG with the HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company) hangars and a number of aircraft, mostly Cathay Pacific and Cathay Cargo ones, undergoing maintenance there. In the background, another company A350-900 is slowing down after arriving on Runway 25C as CX150 from Brisbane.
Turning climb out of Hong Kong as we head southeast. The business class seats are extraordinarily comfortable, being an updated version of the type found on most CX 777-300ERs.
In cruise over the South China Sea. Dinner tonight is lamb shoulder confit with spiced jus. Served hot, it was a nice way to help us settle in for the trip to Sydney. Cabin service, as usual, is also excellent.
We’ve got the seat fully flat and are ready to get a few hours of sleep as we pass by Palawan in the Philippines. One neat thing about the Cathay Pacific A350s is the calligraphic brushstroke logo, the same one as on the tail, painted on the inside of the winglets. In an era of increasingly-bland winglet paint schemes, it’s a nice change of pace. Other airlines who’ve bucked the trend are Emirates and Qantas with their A380s, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Air France, China Southern Airlines, and to a lesser extent Lufthansa with their A350s, and of course, Southwest Airlines with their 737s.
Descending over rural New South Wales at dawn
Arriving on Runway 16R at Kingsford Smith. We slept wonderfully here in business, only having been woken up by the announcement we were descending.
Sydney Tower at sunrise
Deplaned at Gate 34. Now off to get breakfast before heading down to Melbourne!
i love the little history lesson at the beginning too 