Cathay’s New York lounge will have direct boarding

Cathay Pacific’s first-ever lounge at New York JFK will offer travellers the convenience of direct boarding onto the aerobridge and their awaiting CX flight.

This will be one of several “premium passenger” perks at the new Terminal 6 lounge, which is expected to open mid-year when Cathay moves across from its current home at JFK Terminal 8 to the redeveloped and transformed T6.

The Cathay Pacific New York JFK lounge will span some 930m² (10,000ft²) with room for almost 200 passengers, and adopt the elegant residential design created by Ilse Crawford which has become Cathay’s signature look.

Cathay's new JFK lounge will boast the 'signature look' already established at The Pier, among others.

For Cathay, it offers a rare opportunity to not only build an all-new lounge, but to more tightly and deliberately integrate it into the terminal as a whole.

“Terminal 6 is a small terminal so you’ll have that really seamless, end-to-end journey, where we can take much more control of the ground experience for our customers, versus where we are today at T8,” explains Guillaume Vivet, Cathay’s General Manager Customer Experience Design.

This will start with a more streamlined check-in experience for premium travellers, assisted by “all the latest airport technology.”

“From the time you arrive to the terminal, security is going to be a breeze, as well as getting to the lounge and boarding,” Vivet tells Executive Traveller.

Cathay Pacific's JFK lounge will offer direct boarding from sofa to suite.

Another unique touch for what is ostensibly a business class lounge is “a dedicated zone for first class customers as well as our Diamond members,” replicating an exclusive space at Hong Kong’s The Bridge lounge.

While familiar touches will include the Noodle Bar, visitors to the lounge can “expect some locally-inspired elements. (The lounge) will have its own unique New York flavour,” Vivet adds.

And in common with Cathay’s London and Vancouver lounges, there’ll also be shower suites. “All our long-haul ports have showers, because that matters to our customers.”

Shower suites will let travellers freshen up before their flight to Hong Kong.

Other creature comforts will include high-power USB-C outlets and wireless charging points.

And before the New York lounge opens, Cathay will cut the ribbon and roll out the lion dancers for the long-awaited return of The Wing First lounge in Hong Kong.

The Wing First will represent an “evolution” of the airline’s signature lounge style, with the popular Cabana suites making way for a new “wellness” proposition.

Read more: Cathay’s new-look The Wing first class lounge

David Flynn travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Cathay Pacific