Cathay Pacific has reached an order of 150 aircraft with Airbus for fleet renewal to replace the gradually aging aircraft models | Frontline

Author｜Huang Nan

Editor｜Yuan Silai

Cathay Pacific Airways recently announced that it has reached an order of 150 aircraft with Airbus. The newly purchased aircraft are mainly used for fleet renewal to replace the gradually aging models.

HardcoreTech has learned that these 150 aircraft are the total number of new aircraft that Cathay Pacific has ordered from Airbus in the past year. It includes multiple aircraft models such as the narrow-body airliners A321neo and A320neo, the regional wide-body airliner A330neo, and the large cargo aircraft A350F.

The delivery schedule of the 150 new aircraft will be carried out successively in the next three years. From 2026, Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Express will receive the second batch of A321neo and A320neo narrow-body airliners; from 2027, Cathay Pacific will receive A350 cargo aircraft to expand its cargo fleet; from 2028, it will start to receive the new-generation regional wide-body airliner A330neo.

Cathay Pacific Reaches an Order of 150 Aircraft with Airbus

Since this year, Hong Kong International Airport has overcome the reconstruction challenges brought by the epidemic and achieved a strong recovery in many key areas such as aircraft takeoffs and landings, the number of passengers, and cargo throughput. In terms of specific passenger flow and cargo volume, as early as 2019, the passenger throughput of Hong Kong Airport has exceeded 70 million passengers; except for 2020, Hong Kong International Airport has also been the world's busiest international cargo airport.

According to Cathay Pacific's official data, in the first nine months of this year, the number of passengers carried by Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Express exceeded 20 million. Affected by the back-to-school season for international students and the National Day Golden Week holiday in September, Cathay Pacific carried about 1.82 million passengers in a single month, an increase of 17.8% compared to the same month in 2023. In terms of cargo, September entered the traditional peak season, and the demand increased. The cargo volume within the month increased by 11% compared to the same period last year.

In a few weeks, with the Three-runway System (3RS) of Hong Kong International Airport to be put into operation, the aviation industry in Hong Kong will usher in a new era. The Acting Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Government, Wong Wai-lun, said that 3RS will help increase the annual throughput of the airport to 120 million passengers and 10 million tons of cargo. The markets of the countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative", including the Middle East and ASEAN, will continue to be the key layout direction of Hong Kong.

In order to cooperate with the completion of 3RS, Cathay Pacific previously proposed to invest more than HK$100 billion in the next seven years. Lin Shaobo, the Chief Executive Officer of Cathay Pacific Group, told HardcoreTech that as aircraft are the core assets of each airline, the largest component of Cathay Pacific's 100-billion capital investment is precisely the fleet, in order to help expand the scale of the Cathay Pacific Group's fleet and keep the entire fleet young and modern.

In terms of route layout, the Cathay Pacific Group will also add more flights and routes. By the end of this year, it will launch 6 new Cathay Pacific destinations and 9 new Hong Kong Express destinations to meet the growth in travel demand. It is expected that in 2025, Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Express will be able to provide passengers with access to 100 destinations.