Cathay Pacific fires 3 cabin crew members accused of insulting non-English speaking passengers

HONG KONG — Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has fired three cabin crew members accused by a Mandarin-speaking passenger of insulting and discriminating against non-English speakers.

The move came after details of the alleged incident aboard a flight from Chengdu in Sichuan province to Hong Kong on Sunday (May 21) were posted online.

The passenger said on mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu that some cabin crew members on CX987 had throughout the flight complained among themselves in English and Cantonese about customers.

Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam Siu-Por apologised for the incident in a statement, saying the airline had concluded the investigation.

“In accordance with the company’s policies, we have terminated three cabin crew members who were involved,” he said. “I would like to reiterate our zero-tolerance approach to any serious breach of the company’s policies and Code of Conduct. There is no compromise for such violations.”

The passenger involved in the incident earlier said: “I really don’t understand why there is so much malice towards passengers who don’t speak English or Cantonese.”

They accused the flight attendants of making fun of others’ language ability by saying in English: “If you cannot say ‘blanket’, you cannot have it,” and “Carpet is on the floor”.

The accuser also said some passengers inquired in English on how to fill in the immigration form, but were only met with impatient responses from cabin crew.

One flight attendant was said to have remarked in Cantonese to her colleague: “They cannot understand the human language”, after making an in-flight announcement in Cantonese to remind passengers to remain seated when the safety belt sign was on, as an elderly passenger holding a child went to the toilet.

The user, claiming to be a native Mandarin speaker who had lived in Hong Kong for 11 years and spoke fluent English and Cantonese, said it was the right thing to do to expose discriminatory treatment.

“Not a moment went by when I was not sad or angry,” the passenger said, urging the carrier to improve staff training to prevent similar incidents. “Why can’t you show basic respect to passengers? Is this your trained staff quality, Cathay Pacific?”

Cathay also released a statement on its official account on Weibo on Monday apologising for the incident, adding it attached great importance to the case.

“We have contacted relevant passengers to learn more about the situation and will investigate and handle the incident seriously,” it said. “We once again express our deep apologies for the trouble this incident has caused to everyone.”

The incident was widely reported by mainland media, and some internet users urged the carrier to sack the flight attendants involved while others shared what they said were their own experiences of suffering discrimination by Cathay’s cabin crew.

A Weibo account belonging to the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, called on the airline to carry out a “rectification” and establish rules to ensure staff did not mistreat customers.

In 2019, mainland media reported that airline staff members had joined the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. The carrier threatened to sack employees who took part in the rallies after China’s civil aviation regulator warned they would be barred from flights to and from the mainland. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST