Cathay Pacific to open New York lounge at JFK

Cathay Pacific will open its first-ever lounge in New York in early 2026, when the airline moves from JFK Terminal 8 to the redeveloped and transformed Terminal 6.

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

“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 teases that the new lounge “will feature a number of exciting developments that will put it at the forefront of our lounge proposition”, with details to come as the obligatory ribbon-cutting and Lion Dance ceremony draw nearer.

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

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

Cathay will join Lufthansa, Swiss, Aer Lingus and JetBlue at JFK T6. Lufthansa and Swiss will share one lounge for the group, with a second from Aer Lingus; an airline-independent arrivals lounge is also on the cards.

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.”

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

The move comes as Cathay marks 20 years of non-stop flights to New York. It currently runs three daily flights on the popular trans-Pacific route linking these two global financial centres, with first class having returned from March this year.

Also on the cards is the imminent reopening of Cathay’s Paris lounge at CDG Terminal 2 plus a dramatic make-over of its Beijing lounge to become a “flagship lounge” for the Chinese capital.

Meanwhile, the countdown is on to the mid-year launch of Cathay’s new 777 Aria Suites business class, alongside a fresh take on Cathay premium economy.

The airline intends to follow that with all-new 777 first class suites, although as these are intended for the 777-9 jetliners, the timeline remains in the hands of Boeing.

777-9 launch customer Emirates, which will fit 14 first class suites to its 777X fleet, doesn’t expect deliveries to begin until mid-2026.

As part of the transition to the 777-9 first class suites, Cathay has confirmed it will remove first class from the Boeing 777-300ER fleet.

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