CCO Interview: Cathay Pacific's Boeing Triple Seven Plans

In April, Cathay Pacific (CX) launched its latest long-haul destination, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). The Texan megahub joined CX’s North American network, which saw Seattle (SEA) as CX’s latest announcement. 

From the Aria Suite to the Boeing 777-9, Cathay Pacific has been busy securing its future. We sat down with Cathay's Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, Lavinia Lau, to learn about Cathay’s network, fleet, and product development.

Oneworld alliance: One more airline, Oman Air, just joined the oneworld alliance – will we see Cathay Pacific boosting its network in the Middle East?

“The Middle East is an important region for Cathay Pacific, and we welcome the news that Oman Air will be joining oneworld, further expanding the alliance’s footprint in this part of the world.

Last October, we were pleased to launch our new direct service between Hong Kong and Riyadh, directly connecting our home hub with the capital and financial centre of Saudi Arabia. Having already increased this from three to four return flights per week, starting from late October, we are pleased to be further growing to a daily service. This complements our existing daily flights to Dubai, connecting more customers from the Middle East to Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, and beyond.”

What unserved markets in North America are being monitored, and can we expect more growth in the U.S.?

Cathay Pacific has a long history in North America spanning over 40 years, and the region remains a significant market for us.

In September, we announced the latest addition to our global network and our ninth destination in North America – Seattle. Launching on 30 March 2026 with five flights per week, this service will reconnect Hong Kong with a key tech hub and a vibrant city on the west coast of the United States.

Meanwhile, we are also pleased to be increasing our new non-stop service to Dallas-Fort Worth to daily starting from late October. This route was only launched in April this year with four flights per week, but we are pleased by the positive reception it’s received from our customers.

Our 2026 summer schedule will see us operating over 110 return passenger flights per week from nine cities in North America – Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. We also look forward to introducing a new flagship lounge in New York for the very first time in 2026 when we move to the new Terminal 6 building at John F Kennedy International Airport.

On the cargo side, our passenger flights provide belly capacity for Cathay Cargo, which also operates 40 dedicated freighter flights per week to destinations in North America. 

The Cathay Group celebrated its 100th destination in June, inaugurating two long-haul destinations in Europe :o Rome Fiumicino and Munich. What is next for the group?

Celebrating our 100th passenger destination in June marked a significant milestone for the Cathay Group, underscoring our commitment to expanding our global network and helping customers move forward in life.

In 2025, we will launch or announce passenger flights to 21 new destinations. We are looking forward to welcoming Changsha, Adelaide, and Kota Kinabalu to our network in November, and Seattle in March next year, further enhancing our Group connectivity with the Chinese Mainland, Oceania,  Southeast Asia, and the Americas, respectively.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on strategic growth while continuing to enhance the travel experience for our customers. This includes the rollout of our award-winning Aria Suite Business class, which debuted on our retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER fleet in October 2024, offering elevated comfort and privacy.

We’re also investing in our lounge products globally, with refreshed designs and upgraded amenities that reflect our premium positioning, such as the recently-renovated The Bridge lounge at Hong Kong International Airport and the redesigned Beijing flagship lounge, which reopened in May and August of this year, respectively.

We are continuously committed to enhancing our customers’ experience. We are proud to be one of the few airlines in the world to offer both 100% seatback inflight entertainment and 100% inflight connectivity across Cathay Pacific’s fleet. Alongside these enhancements, our continued investment in next-generation aircraft ensures we deliver a more sustainable, efficient, and world-class journey across our expanding network.

Many airlines are either discontinuing, rebranding, or shrinking their first-class products. Will the Boeing 777-9s be equipped with six seats, like the B777-300ERs, or can we expect a change in LOPA?

We are very excited to be introducing a new, world-leading First class on our Boeing 777 9 aircraft when the first aircraft is expected to arrive in 2027. The 777-9 will be our flagship fleet, and we plan to begin taking delivery of the aircraft in 2027. The 777-9 will be a mixed fleet consisting of four-cabin aircraft – featuring a new world-leading First class – and three-cabin aircraft.

We look forward to sharing more information about the new cabins at the appropriate time, so stay tuned!

In-flight product: Will all the Boeing 777-9s feature the same cabin layout, or will the deliveries be split into medium-haul and long-haul service?

Following our recent announcement of the exercise of purchase rights for an additional 14 Boeing 777 9 aircraft, we now have a total of 35 of these long-haul aircraft in our delivery pipeline. This latest aircraft order brings the Cathay Group’s total investment into our fleet, cabin and lounge products, and digital innovation to well over HK$100 billion.

The 777-9 will be our flagship fleet, comprising a mixed fleet of four-cabin and three-cabin aircraft featuring new cabin products that our customers can look forward to.

When is it planned to retrofit the A350 fleet, and will we see an “Aria Suite 2.0” in the future?

Following the launch of our award-winning Aria Suite, new Premium Economy and refreshed Economy class cabins on the 777-300ER in October 2024, we will be introducing new cabins and a lie-flat Business class product on our A330s in 2026, followed by our new world-leading First class on our 777-9s in 2027.

We are currently very focused on retrofitting our fleet of 777-300ER aircraft with our new Aria Suite, Premium Economy, and Economy cabins, together with our latest award-winning inflight entertainment experience. In terms of retrofits to our other aircraft and other next-generation cabin products, we are keeping our options open.

What is the timeline for The Wing, First, and what amenities will stay?

We are currently undergoing an extensive lounge enhancement plan in Hong Kong and other major destinations in our network. In May this year, we closed The Wing, First for renovation, and we look forward to its reopening in mid-2026. The renovation of The Wing, Business will follow this.

Whether it’s on the ground or in the air, the guiding principle for our design approach is to be human-centric. We have applied learnings gained over the past decade from across our lounge portfolio – in particular, The Pier, First – together with extensive and immersive research with our frequent flyers, insights from the premium hospitality industry, and a deep understanding of how technology is shaping our customers’ needs, habits, and expectations.

The result is a refinement of our customers’ favourite features – including more versatile dining propositions and spaces that adapt to our different customers and times of day, and more signature Cathay design elements that our customers have come to love – together with exclusive propositions for our First class customers and most frequent flyers. This is further enhanced by the innovative application of new technologies, thoughtfully delivered with a human touch. 

In May, we reopened The Bridge and converted The Deck into an interim First-class lounge at our home hub, Hong Kong. These spaces, along with The Pier, First, and The Pier, Business, will ensure that we continue to provide a premium lounge experience in Hong Kong for our customers during the renovation of The Wing, First, followed by The Wing, Business.

We are delighted to announce the reopening of our new flagship lounge in Beijing, introducing our signature lounge design to the capital for the first time. Over the coming years, we will be launching new flagship lounges in Hong Kong and, for the very first time, New York, which we are very excited about.