Cathay Pacific September 1946 as "Cathay Pacific Airways Limited", while another sister company The Roy Farrell Export Import Company (Hong Kong) Limited was incorporated on 28 August 1946 and chartered some flights of Cathay. According to "International Directory of Company Histories", forming two companies are for tax purposes. They named the airline "Cathay", the ancient name given to China, and "Pacific" because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific (which happened in the 1970s). Moreover, to avoid the name "Air Cathay" as it was already occurred in a comic. The Chinese name for the company ("") was not
Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific temporarily took over Philippine Airlines's domestic and international operations during its fourteen-day shutdown (from 26 September – 7 October 1998). The airline was hurt by the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, but recorded a record HK$5 billion profit in 2000. On Monday, 6 July 1998, at 00:00 HKT, Kai Tak International Airport saw its last commercial departure, Cathay Pacific Flight 251 (a Boeing 747-400) to London Heathrow Airport, after over 73 years of operation. The next day, Cathay Pacific Flight 889 (a Boeing 747-400 from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport piloted by Captain Paul