Cathay Pacific marks 80th anniversary with cool retro-livery

Cathay Pacific will soar into its 80th anniversary with the return of its iconic green-and-white livery on one of the airline’s flagship Airbus A350 jetliners.

Fondly known as the Lettuce Leaf or Lettuce Leaf Sandwich scheme, it adorned the Cathay fleet from 1971 to 1994, before making way for the simplified Brushwing livery which still exists (in a refined form) today.

Those horizontal stripes of Brunswick Green along the predominantly white fuselage and tail were a signature touch of the airline.

Cathay’s lettuce leaf livery evokes an understandable sense of nostalgia for the golden age of Asian aviation, and is mostly remembered for its appearance on Cathay Boeing 747s as the jumbo jets swooped over apartment blocks, busy streets and the infamous Kowloon Walled City on the final approach to Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport.

But the Lettuce Leaf look was equally striking on the Boeing 707 and the Lockheed TriStar.

Now it will appear on a special Airbus A350 in a retro-livery treatment which is certain to be a social media hit at airports around the world.

The A350 livery broke cover this weekend when captured by a keen-eyed Chinese aviation photographer behind scaffolding at the Xiamen facility of Cathay sibling HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited).

This A350, which also carried a large 80 on both sides, is expected to take to the skies in the coming weeks, at the start of a year-long celebration for Cathay Pacific’s historic milestone.

Cathay Pacific Airways was founded on 24 September 1946 by Australian Syd de Kantzow and American Roy Farrell, two ex-Air Force pilots who saw an opportunity to fly cargo from Australia into China – a feat first accomplished using a Douglas DC-3 nicknamed Betsy.

Their newly-formed airline adopted the ancient name of Cathay given to China, and Pacific because Farrell speculated they would one day fly across the Pacific.

80 years on, and 2026 promises to be a significant year for the airline.

From a passenger perspective it will see the debut of a new A330 regional business class with fully lie-flat beds, replacing the recliners launched in 2012 on jets from both Cathay Pacific and the now-defunct Cathay Dragon.

The aim is to deliver a consistent passenger experience with Cathay’s long-range A350 and Boeing 777 fleet.

While the design of that seat remains under wraps, it’s likely to take some visual cues from the 777 Aria Suite business class and perhaps the A321neo regional business class.

New Cathay lounges for 2026

And on the ground there’ll be lion dances and ribbon-cutting at two new flagship lounges.

The first be an all-new lounge at New Tork JFK, with Cathay relocating from its current home at T8 to the redeveloped JFK Terminal 6.

The Cathay Pacific New York JFK lounge will span some 930m² (10,000ft²) – making it close to half the size of The Pier First Lounge in Hong Kong– and offer the “signature Cathay Pacific lounge experience” ahead of flights to Hong Kong.

“JFK is a very strategic location (with) a lot of premium passengers flying on that route,” Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau has previously told Executive Traveller.

Cathay Pacific today flies from JFK Terminal 8, which it shares with most other Oneworld – including American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways.

“We have been using the American Airlines lounge because we are in the AA terminal, but it was always on our wish list to have our own lounge because it’s such an important port,” Lau tells Executive Traveller.

“So when we decided that we are going to move to this new Terminal 6 and they offered us a location where we can have our own lounge, we basically jumped at the opportunity.”

The Cathay Pacific New York JFK lounge will adopt the same elegant design created by Ilse Crawford for Cathay, which has in turn shaped Hong Kong’s The Pier, The Deck and soon The Wing, along with other Cathay Pacific lounges at London, Vancouver and across Asia.

It will also feature familiar Cathay business lounge elements such as the Noodle Bar, plush furnishings and high-end finishes.

However, Cathay has also teased that its JFK T6 lounge “will feature a number of exciting developments that will put it at the forefront of our lounge proposition.”

This will be followed in the middle of 2026 with the reopening of The Wing First Class after a 12-month transformation.

Executive Traveller understands The Cabanas are not only returning but they'll be even better – and once The Wing First has unlocked its doors, it’ll be the turn of The Wing Business to go under the knife through to mid-2027.