Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific fires crew members accused of discriminating against non-English speakers

HONG KONG– Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has sacked three cabin crew members after a passenger accused them of discriminating against non-English speakers, in a case that has drawn criticism from Chinese state media.

The airline’s CEO, Ronald Lam, on Tuesday apologized to the passenger and the community for the incident, which happened on Sunday on a flight from Chengdu, southwest China, to Hong Kong. He reiterated his company’s “zero tolerance” for any serious violation of its policies and code of conduct.

“There is no compromise for such violations,” he said in a statement.

The sacking came after the passenger complained in an online post that some crew members were disrespectful to passengers who spoke neither English nor Cantonese, the language widely spoken in Hong Kong. The person accused them of making fun of passengers’ English ability when asking for blankets and other disrespectful behavior.

Cathay posted an apology on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Monday for the “unpleasant experience” suffered by passengers on the flight, but failed to assuage the anger sparked by the passenger’s post.

On Tuesday, a Weibo account belonging to the overseas edition of the official Chinese People’s Daily harshly criticized Cathay over the incident.

“It seems its corporate culture still maintains a sense of superiority that reveres foreigners and respects Hong Kongers, but despises mainlanders,” he wrote.

He said the airline should rectify itself and establish rules to end this unhealthy trend.

Transport and Logistics Secretary Lam Sai-hung said on Wednesday he had expressed deep concern to Cathay and asked management to immediately improve the company’s services. He added that he was very distressed by the “inappropriate comments” made by crew members, calling the incident a “serious damage to Hong Kong’s reputation for service excellence”.

Cathay is struggling to rebuild its business after years of strict pandemic travel restrictions that have forced the airline to suffer heavy losses.

In March, it reported a loss of 6.55 billion Hong Kong dollars ($834.4 million) in 2022 – an 18.5% increase from 2021 amid tight entry restrictions for the city during the first half of last year.