CATHAY PACIFIC

The word "Cathay" in "Cathay Pacific" comes from Khitan (Qīdan), a nomadic semi-Mongolic group that established the Liao dynasty in northern China during the 10th to 12th centuries. They inhabited regions spanning modern-day Mongolia, Northeast China, and the Russian Far East.



Central Asian and Persian traders began calling northern China Khitai after them. A variant of the word is still used today in several languages as the standard word for China (e.g., Kitay/Kитай in Russian). The name reached Europe through medieval travelers like Marco Polo as Cathay.



Cathay Pacific Airlines is HQ in Hong Kong (Cathay) which is on the South China sea of the Pacific Ocean, thus "Cathay Pacific".



"Cathay" represented China/Asia—specifically honoring the regional base and their ambitious vision of regional connectivity.

"Pacific" was chosen because Farrell envisioned that the airline would one day fly across the Pacific Ocean to reach North America.

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