Cathay Pacific

After World War II, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited grew from a small regional airline to a prosperous international carrier fueled by trade and tourism. After the 1997 transition to Chinese rule in Hong Kong, the carrier has had to redefine its role at the gateway of southern China. In spite of a traditional determination to go it alone, Cathay Pacific joined the one-world alliance, spearheaded by American Airlines and British Airways, to economically maintain a global presence. Cathay Pacific's roots date back to 1946 when 34-year-old American businessman and pilot Roy Farrell teamed up with an adventurous 32-year-old Australian pilot, Sydney de Kantzow, who had been flying the 'Hump' (the route from Calcutta over Burma to Chungking) during World War II. Originally operating out of Shanghai with a lone DC-3, the two entrepreneurs soon moved their operations to Hong Kong, where they were required to officially register their company with the British colonial government. Together they registered Cathay Pacific Airways' corporate papers on September 24 of that year, also forming the Roy Farrell Import-Export Company which, for tax purposes, would lease aircraft from Cathay Pacific. By the end of 1946 the airline had acquired a second DC-3 and had carried 3,000 passengers and 15,000 kilos of cargo between Australia and Asia. In 1947 Cathay Pacific added five more DC-3s and two smaller aircraft known as Catalina 'flying boats,' which allowed the airline to begin service to Macao, a nearby Portuguese colony on the coast of China. In these years immediately following World War II, Farrell and de Kantzow had to contend with Asia's shifting political boundaries, and their passengers enjoyed few of the comforts that today's transcontinental passengers have come to expect. The Roy Farrell Import-Export Company proved to be a profitable enterprise, operating out of an office on Ice House Street in Hong Kong; at this time it was advertising Australian oysters (considered a delicacy in the British Crown Colony) available by air within 32 hours of their harvesting. By 1948 Cathay Pacific had a passenger ticket office in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, among the colony's most prestigious establishments. While flight crews were recruited mostly from Australia and the United States, de Kantzow began staffing passenger flights with Portuguese stewardesses from Macao and Hong Kong. Early in 1948, Farrell and de Kantzow were informed by the British governor of Hong Kong that, as foreigners, they were barred from owning more than 20 percent of the airline; a British partner would have to be recruited. After negotiations with the British air transport company Skyways ended unsuccessfully, Cathay Pacific's founders turned to John Kidston 'Jock' Swire, head of Butterfield & Swire, a leading trading company in Hong Kong. Farrell and de Kantzow believed that a British partner would be willing to pay a great deal to join their profitable business. The airline industry was at a crossroads, as 'tramp' airlines running charter flights were giving way to increasingly competitive scheduled airline operations. Since 1946, the Bermuda agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom had regulated the routes airlines could service and the fares they could charge, marking a new era of government restrictions. Swire's influence with the British government made him an advantageous partner. From Swire's point of view, Cathay Pacific had a convenient competitor: Hong Kong Airways, run by Swire's longtime business rival, Jardine Matheson. Negotiations with Swire were fruitful, and in July 1948 the new Cathay Pacific Airways was officially registered. The first known incident of air piracy occurred that same month when a Cathay Pacific flight, ten miles from Macao and carrying 23 passengers, was hijacked by a Chinese gunman who apparently believed the plane was carrying a cargo of gold bullion. The flight's captain, Dale Cramer, was shot in the head,