First class dining room for Cathay Pacific’s New York lounge?

Cathay Pacific will open its first-ever lounge in New York in early 2026, and airline loyalists are already keen to know if there’ll be a dedicated space for first class passengers and top-tier frequent flyers.

Located in the redeveloped and transformed JFK Terminal 6, which will host Cathay flights after the airline moves across from its current home at T8, the Cathay Pacific New York JFK lounge will span some 930m² (10,000ft²) – making it close to half the size of The Pier First Lounge in Hong Kong.

“New York JFK is among the top locations in our global lounge strategy,” explains Vivian Lo, Cathay Pacific’s General Manager of Customer Experience and Design.

Lo promises that the new lounge “will feature a number of exciting developments that will put it at the forefront of our lounge proposition.”

Cathay Pacific’s New York JFK lounge

Cathay currently maintains seperate first class lounges only at Hong Kong (at both The Wing and The Pier) and London Heathrow, the latter of which hosts five daily CX flights, two of which feature a Boeing 777 with first class.

New York, by comparison, today shows just three daily flights to Hong Kong, with only one on a 777 with first class.

Speaking with Executive Traveller on the sidelines of the launch of Cathay’s new 777 Aria Suites business class, Lo wasn’t taking the bait when asked the new lounge would have seperate first class and business class wings or be a single-class lounge.

“We’ll tell you more when it's time to turn there,” she skilfully teased.

One option, depending on space, might be a small first class dining room where first class flyers and possibly Cathay Diamonds could enjoy an à la carte menu and an upgraded drinks selection.

Cathay's New York lounge will draw on the same design DNA as The Pier.

The overall lounge will almost certainly feature familiar Cathay business lounge elements such as the Noodle Bar, plush furnishings and high-end finishes.

Those will be drawn from the same elegant ‘residential feel’ established by feted UK designer Ilse Crawford which has shaped The Pier HK along with other Cathay Pacific lounges at London, Vancouver and across Asia.

Cathay’s first class lounge at London Heathrow has become the go-to for high-ranking frequent flyers on American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, JAL and Qantas, among others.

But it will different scenario at JFK Terminal 6, where Cathay is currently listed as the only Oneworld airline alongside Lufthansa, Swiss, Aer Lingus and JetBlue.

One of the three AA/BA lounges at New York JFK T8.

In comparison, most other Oneworld airlines fly from JFK Terminal 8: including American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways.

American Airlines and British Airways in late 2022 opened new T8 lounges as part of their trans-Atlantic joint business venture.

Cathay Pacific will be among the first airlines to move into JFK Terminal 6.

JFK Millennium Partners, the company behind the new T6, promises Cathay Pacific passengers “can also look forward to Terminal 6's digital-first, boutique guest experience, with a less than 5-minute average walk from the TSA security checkpoint exit to its gates.”

Much closer on the horizon is the return of The Bridge lounge at Hong Kong – which Cathay plans to reactivate while The Wing lounges undergo an extensive two-year upgrade – and a dramatic make-over of the Beijing lounge to become a “flagship lounge” for the Chinese capital.

Also read: Top tips for getting a Cathay Pacific status match