Celebrating 80 Years Together at The Diamond Drinks 2026
The Diamond Drinks, our beloved annual soirée, is a time to celebrate our Diamond community and look ahead to another year of exciting journeys together. On 4 February, we hosted some of our Diamond members at The Peninsula Hong Kong, where guests enjoyed a night of fine wine, entertainment and conversation with Cathay Pacific’s leadership. This special gathering was especially significant, because 2026 is Cathay Pacific’s 80th anniversary, and we were delighted to kick off our festivities with some of our valued Diamond members.
The setting was beautifully decorated for our 80th anniversary, with an enormous lightbox display and themed installations showcasing our destinations, historic aircraft livery, and Betsy DC-3 aircraft. Guests were welcomed at retro registration desks re-imagined from our check-in counters at Kai Tak Airport. The venue itself was meaningful, because Cathay Pacific once had a ticket office in the grand lobby of The Peninsula Hong Kong. This history was referenced in a vintage-style photo backdrop based on our old ticket offices.
The evening’s programme started with a short video depicting key milestones and future developments at Cathay Pacific. Our Group CEO Ronald Lam then took the stage to make his opening remarks, reflecting on our legacy as an airline and updating the Diamond members in attendance about our enhanced membership programme. Ronald also took the opportunity to share more details with our valued members about our HK$100 billion investment into strengthening Hong Kong’s status as an international aviation hub and further elevating Cathay Pacific’s customer experience on the ground and in the air. He then highlighted the award-winning Aria Suite, in the Business class cabins of our retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, is now available on more routes than before, including daily flights to London, Sydney, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Vancouver, to name just a few destinations; more will be announced in due course.
Guests were also treated to an exclusive first look at visuals of one of our exciting developments: the transformation of The Wing, First lounge, which we plan to reopen this year. The pinnacle of this special evening was when Ronald revealed a teaser of Aria Studio, our all-new regional Business class lie-flat beds, to debut on our Airbus A330-300 by the end of 2026. This new Business class product has been meticulously redesigned in response to valuable feedback from our frequent flyers, with comfort-enhancing details such as direct aisle access.
The evening continued with a glamorous performance featuring iconic Cathay Pacific uniforms modelled by members of our cabin crew. It was an enjoyable (cat)walk down memory lane as our crew sashayed in smart vintage uniforms that reflect the changing styles of the past eight decades.
Guests spent the rest of the evening mingling over canapés and fine wines from Cathay Pacific’s First class inflight cellar. At the end of the night, they were presented with souvenirs selected from our exclusive 80th anniversary merchandise , including tote bags and aircraft models inspired by our classic “lettuce leaf sandwich” livery. Look to the skies and you might spot our Airbus A350 passenger aircraft and Boeing 747 freighter bearing this historic green-and-white livery, which we’ve brought back this year in honour of our anniversary.
We’d like to express our gratitude to the Diamond community for being an important part of our ongoing journey. Stay tuned for more anniversary news and events as we continue celebrating throughout 2026.