Spotting Aeroplanes: Cathay 744s Farewell @ YVR

And so it left us with triumph as a few plane spotters witnessed the end of Cathay's 744s service to YVR. The farewell flight was operated by B-HOS, the third oldest Cathay 744 fleet with 22.5 years of age.

According to Routes Online's record, the first Cathay transatlantic HKG-YVR route dated back on 01 May 1983. Initially started as a twice daily service by the 742 fleet, Cathay boosted operation to daily by the late 80s. The 80s also marked the immigration trend in Hong Kong as the British annouced the return of Hong Kong back to China as the 100 years "land lease agreement" concludes, making Hong Kong no longer a British Colony by 1997. Hong Kong became a British Colony due to political and "war" reasons as China signed a 100 years lease agreement to give Hong Kong away to the British government. With a well-established economy and political structure, Hong Kong was in panic and fright of China's "communist" government. A large number of Hong Kong residence tried to "escape" and immigrated all around the world, and Vancouver was one of the popular destinations.

Cathay currently operates twice daily flights from HKG-YVR, with CX837/838 as a pure HKG-YVR direct route while CX888/889 operates as a stopover connection to JFK (HKG-YVR-JFK). The CX838/837 operation will be replaced by 773ERs (unless fleet replacement is required for operational or emergency purposes of course). This will make a full 773ER operation for the twice daily operations to YVR.

On the other side, the Cathay cargo stopovers at YVR still alters between the 744Fs and 748Fs. But yes, looks like we won't be seeing Cathay's passenger 744s for a while.

Pictures carry a million words like an eternal hard drive that retains memorable moments ... please enjoy: