Cathay fires three cabin crew over mocking of non-English speakers

Cathay Pacific has fired three flight attendants after a mainland passenger accused them of discriminating against non-English speakers and mocking them on a flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong on Sunday.

The female passenger complained about her experience on mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu.

That included a 31-second voice clip in which the attendants are heard chatting in the pantry and laughing at a passenger unable to ask for a blanket in English.

"If you cannot say blanket in English you cannot have it," one said. Then they laughed at the passenger for saying "carpet" instead of "blanket."

"Carpet is on the floor," one said. "Feel free [to use that] if you want ... Lie on it."

Cathay chief executive Ronald Lam Siu-por said the airline has concluded the investigation and in accordance with company policies "terminated three cabin crew members who were involved." He added: " 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."

He also apologized to the passenger in a statement last night.

Lam added: "To avoid any similar occurrences in the future, I will personally lead a cross-departmental task force to conduct a comprehensive review into our service flow, people training and relevant mechanisms to further enhance Cathay's service quality.

"We need to ensure that all employees must at all times respect passengers from different backgrounds and cultures, and that we provide quality services consistently across all markets that we serve."

The terminated attendants had also taken verbal swipes at passengers unable to understand Cantonese after an elderly passenger took a child to a toilet soon after the plane took off and with the fasten seatbelt sign still on. The passenger quoted one attendant as saying: They cannot understand the human language."

Another woman asked an attendant in English about how to fill in a declaration card but was said to have received impatient answers.

The aggrieved passenger who laid the accusations is a mainlander who has lived in Hong Kong for 11 years. She was seated in the rearmost row of flight CX987 and heard the attendants complaining constantly about passengers in English and Cantonese during the two-and-a-half-hour flight.

"During the whole journey there wasn't a moment I was not heartbroken, sad or angry," she said. "I don't understand why they were so hostile to passengers who could not speak English or Cantonese. Why couldn't they show some basic respect to passengers?"

Cathay earlier apologized twice on mainland social media Weibo on Monday night and yesterday, saying it has suspended the three attendants and launched an internal investigation.

"We would like to express our sincerest apologies," said director of service delivery Mandy Ng Kit-man.

"We have already suspended ... the cabin crew members involved and an internal investigation is under way. We will announce the findings of the investigation within the next three days."

Ng said Cathay will deal with words and behavior that violate its code of conduct seriously and diligently.

"This is our strong commitment," she said. "We thank everyone for their attention and feedback."

Xiakedao, a social media site under People's Daily, said in a commentary: "The airline, whose parent company was British-backed, was founded by foreigners almost 50 years before the handover. It seems the airline retains a culture of worshipping foreigners and respecting Hongkongers while looking down on mainlanders along with an inexplicable sense of superiority.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com

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