Oh Cathay Pacific, you spoil us! Cathay Pacific celebrates 80th anniversary with retro livery Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is celebrating its 80th anniversary. While the airline is promising a variety of initiatives as part of this celebration, there's one that us aviation geeks will be especially excited about. Specifically, the oneworld airline will be rolling…
Continue reading: SWOON: Retro Cathay Pacific “Lettuce Leaf Sandwich” Livery Unveiled
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Does anybody know the font of the Cathay Pacific logo text on the image captioned "Cathay Pacific’s second livery"?
Two of Cathay’s planes, B-LJR (747-8F) and B-LAR (A330) are in Xiamen where B-LRJ was painted. They have been there for around three weeks. Perhaps the second and third aircraft to get the retro look?
Back in 1988 (SHUT UP, I'M OLD!) on my first trip to Asia I flex CX first on the old 747-200, SFO-YVR-HKG; that's when they still had the Union Jack flag on the top of the tail and the Swire Group flag next to the Cathay Pacific name on the body of the plane. They had five rows of first class in the nose section, and an additional four rows upstairs. Beautiful plane.
Fun fact: to squeeze in more seats, they sealed the exit doors over the wings.
I have to say in all my years of flying Cathay (including during the era prior to the brushstroke livery), as well as participating and reading travel and aviation sites, I have never heard the term "Lettuce Leaf" used in conjunction with Cathay's stripped livery.
Is this an internal naming of Cathay's livery by employees?
Sorry, wish you could edit. I meant to spell "striped" not "stripped," since I got called out yesterday
…. 🙂 Worry not DTWNYC, most of the readership cannot spell English words either.
Diving for cover now …. 🙂
…. Draw up your sandbag 1990 and pin back your ears, my Kai Tak tales are long and some were even quite hairy don’t you know …. 🙂
I’m VERY disappointed that they didn’t at least paint a grey belly on them. I get that a polished belly is not possible on a composite fuselage, but at least paint the grey belly. It feels way too white and not enough like the original.
Just drove by SFO on my way to work and saw this plane at its gate! I could mostly just see the tail above the perimeter fencing, so was confused at what airline it was. A very timely article from my perspective!
Drive safe. Heard you guys were getting a lot of rain recently. And king tides!
Ok! You asked for so sit down and pin your ears back!
Approach to Runway 13 (recognised the number from somewhere?) ILS guide for a drop down low over Kowloon towards Checkerboard Hill (end of ILS, visual, manual approach from now on) at the board bank hard right to line up with and put wheels down on 13. Don’t overshoot the runway. Exit stage Left and check your landing scored by the crash crew.
An iconic approach which I understand upset many commercial pilots, especially in the monsoon season. Certainly more than just a few military personnel lost control of their waste products, as an aborted landing and diversion was not an option. I really loved taking a Fat Albert down that route.
End of tonight’s lesson …. 🙂
2026 is a significant year for Cathay. The airline will celebrate its 80th birthday most importantly, along with new products, which would include new lounges and a new regional product (on select A330s).
The airline has faced significant pain, multiple blows, and crises in its history from SARS in 2002-04 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09 down to fuel hedging bets gone wrong, the 2019 riots in Hong Kong, COVID, and data breaches.
So bringing back the "lettuce sandwich" livery is sort of like the airline dusting itself off and a proverbial rebirth for the airline going back to its glory days.
So back to the livery itself, just like Ben, the "lettuce sandwich" colours were before our time, and the first iteration of the "brushwing" was what we grew up with. In my opinion, the "lettuce sandwich" along with the previous livery was the pinnacle for Cathay competing head to head with Singapore before the major players like Emirates and Qatar came along.
Moving on:
*-8F unveil anticipated on the 26th of January; would've loved to see it on an ERF instead.
*The A350 mimics the 707 and Convair CV-880 hence the small Swire logo by the nose.
*They could've at least added "Cargo" on the -8F as it's not a passenger aircraft
*The belly could've been gray
*Might be unpopular opinion, but am I the only one who would've wanted to see the previous livery on an A350 or A321neo? I've always been curious on how it would've looked!
*Aside from the 80th anniversary, another significant anniversary would be coming up next year which would be the 30th anniversary of the handover back to China. They might do another "Spirit of Hong Kong" or a similar livery to that effect which would coincide with the arrival of the 779.
And going by their timeline and branding trends, we'd probably see ANOTHER brand and livery evolution in 10 years time (damn, that decade went by fast!) and a decade later, the airline's 100th anniversary followed by the expiration of the "One country, Two systems" principle. So who knows where and what the airline and city would look like by then.
Is 2026... the year... that Xi... goes for... involuntary 're-unification'...??
That was such a classy livery and I miss it. I do not like the current "swoosh" livery at all.
I was based in HKG for 6 months in the 1980's and having many great memories of flying CX in and out of Kai Tek.
Lucky you! Its first commercial flight since the repainting is to SFO as CX870.
As mentioned below, by going by their timeline, I wouldn't be surprised to see another evolution of the brand in 10 years.
I'm not sure what branding trends would look like within 10 years!
But back to the current livery, it is minimalist. And the enlarged titles make it look better. It could've been better, sure. But it could've been worse, too. It's like whatever to me, just following minimalist trends.
Looks as ugly and obsolete now, as it did when they got rid of it.
There are some great classic liveries (BA Landor, for example), but this ain't one of them!
You beat me there.... My first flight to Asia was SFO-YVR-HKG in January 1989 (reg VR-HIA).
None of you mentioned how old you were in 1989 or ‘89.
My first flight to Asia was SFO-NRT in 1982. I was 8. Apparently I loved being at an airport so much, my Mom would take me to SFO just to let me run around the terminals.
Now, as an adult, I wish I knew more of Cathay’s history and livery. What an incredible history!
None of you mentioned how old you were in 1989 or ‘89.
My first flight to Asia was SFO-NRT in 1982. I was 8. Apparently I loved being at an airport so much, my Mom would take me to SFO just to let me run around the terminals.
Now, as an adult, I wish I knew more of Cathay’s history and livery. What an incredible history!
Confession time …. Evidently, according to family photographs, I first flew in a CX, DC-4 or 6 between QPG and HKG in 1956. Does that make me old or what?
Do you know there is something very significant which is missing from the vertical stabiliser which should be present on this historic livery. That being the British Union Flag …. 🙂
Don’t I know it 1990, Mr Google is constantly being troubled for a definition, etc …. 🙂
Yes, I knew your mother very well Mike, very well indeed …. 🙂
I’m only joking of course Mike, I was almost certainly around before you were a twinkle in your father’s eye. I must be getting very old actually, as I can remember what I did the 50’s and 60’s, better than what I did last week …. 🙂