Cathay Pacific will reopen all its lounges worldwide by September 2023

With Hong Kong well and truly reopen for business, Cathay Pacific is in an expansionary mood. In addition to restoring 70% of its pre-COVID capacity by the end of this year, the airline has announced an ambitious roadmap to reopen its entire global lounge network by September 2023.

Cathay currently has ten lounges still shuttered, so this means reopening at an average rate of more than one per month; by way of comparison, it took Singapore Airlines 12 months to reopen seven lounges (with three more still in limbo!).

Cathay Pacific’s lounge reopening plan

Cathay Pacific is currently operating three lounges in Hong Kong, plus three more outstation facilities at London Heathrow, Shanghai Pudong and Tokyo Haneda.

In February, the lounges in Singapore and Tokyo Narita will reopen. The Singapore lounge will be a welcome upgrade from the much-inferior Blossom Lounge that passengers are currently directed to, and with opening hours from 7 a.m to 1 a.m, can play host to most other oneworld passengers willing to make the journey to T4.

Cathay Pacific reopening Singapore Changi lounge in February 2023

Tokyo Narita will get a brand new lounge, which relocates to a new space by Gate 71 that is more than 2X larger than the previous lounge. This facility will have excellent views of the tarmac, together with new artwork created by local Japanese studios Belle Fleur and the award-winning Arita Porcelain Lab. A contemporary selection of F&B will be served, featuring traditional Japanese dishes such as sushi, grilled fish, miso soup and curry with rice alongside a selection of light and healthy salads, cheese and cold cuts.

March and April will see the Cathay Pacific Lounges in Bangkok and Manila reopening, both of which have received a refresh to their interior décor, fixtures and furniture.

The Pier First and The Wing Business will follow by August, bringing back day suites (and hopefully spa treatments!) for First Class passengers, as well as another venue for dine-on-demand. 

Finally, Beijing, San Francisco, Taipei and Vancouver will be reopening “in the second and third quarters of 2023”, which means we should see the entire network up and running by September. 

I visited the lounge in San Francisco back in 2019, and found it a pleasant sanctuary to work and dine away from the chaos of the terminal. It’s certainly much better than the horrible Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge, I can tell you that!

The one facility that’s unaccounted for is the Cathay Pacific lounge at Paris Charles De Gaulle, and it remains to be seen whether this will be a permanent casualty of the pandemic. 

Conclusion

Cathay Pacific plans to reopen ten lounges worldwide by September 2023- an ambitious timeline by any means, but incredible if they can stick to it. I hold these facilities in very high regard, perhaps second only to Qatar’s in the oneworld network. 

The first order of business will be to get the Singapore lounge back up and running again, and hopefully Cathay will be back to full strength shortly.