The day Boeing’s 747 arrived in Hong Kong
The arrival of Cathay Pacific’s first jumbo jet in 1979 marked the beginning of an era for the airline as well as Hong Kong
“Jumbo day for Cathay as its first 747 arrives” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on August 1, 1979. Below it, the opening paragraph read: “Cathay Pacific entered the jumbo era yesterday with the arrival of its first Boeing 747 from the United States.”
That era came to a close on October 1, when Cathay marked its retirement of the “queen of the skies” as a passenger plane.
The jumbo jets were slow off the runway for Cathay, the airline taking delivery of its first plane nine years after Pan Am ushered 747s into service in the US.
It was a precursor to the decision to place an order for the jets, which played out under the media spotlight in 1973, as Boeing’s baby vied with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar to become the airline’s first wide-bodied jet, that provided the Post’s first mention of the 747.