“Can Cathay Pacific transform its loyalty programme and airline checkout into a broad embedded financial services platform spanning payments, BNPL, and insurance for its global member base?”
Cathay Pacific was founded in 1946 as a Hong Kong-based airline. Over the past decade, Cathay has progressively layered embedded finance capabilities into its core travel product — beginning with a global Adyen payments integration in 2014-2015 and expanding to BNPL partnerships (Atome, Affirm, Klarna) to improve checkout conversion across key markets. Most recently, Cathay has pivoted toward becoming a 'travel lifestyle brand' by integrating insurance (Zurich partnership, one-stop insurance platform) and loyalty commerce (Asia Miles ecosystem) directly into its customer-facing channels, transforming the airline's digital touchpoints into embedded financial services distribution.
Cathay Pacific processes payments through Adyen.
Cathay Pacific's lending and capital products are provided by Klarna.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Cathay Pacific's stack: Payments / PSP (Adyen); Lending (Klarna, Pay over time (bi-weekly or monthly installments) — U.S. via Affirm, Pay in 3 interest-free instalments — UK, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands via Klarna, Klarna financing (6-24 months, interest-bearing) — Germany and 1 other).
Cathay Pacific is founded in 1946 and headquartered in Hong Kong SAR, China.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Cathay Pacific and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.