Cathay Pacific Airways, the largest airline in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, apologized on Monday evening after an online post accused flight attendants from the airline of discrimination against non-English speaking passengers, Beijing Daily reported.
The airline said in a statement that it has noted the unpleasant experience of some passengers on flight CX987 and apologized for it. The statement read, “Cathay Pacific, which has been devoted to offering high-quality service to passengers, attaches great importance to this incident. We have contacted concerned passengers for further information about the incident and will investigate and handle the case seriously.” At the end of the statement it apologized again for any inconvenience caused by the incident.
On May 23rd, Cathay Pacific Airways issued a second statement emphasizing the significance of the reported incident. The airline promptly reached out to the passengers involved to gather more information. Currently, flight duties for the cabin crew members in question have been suspended, and an internal investigation has been initiated. The airline commits to announcing the investigation outcome within three days.
Netizens Report: Cabin Crew Discrimination Against Non-English-Speaking Passengers
Recently, a netizen posted on a social media platform alleging discrimination against non-English-speaking passengers by cabin crew members during their flight with Cathay Pacific Airways.
The alleged discrimination was posted on social media on Monday. The writer, who is fluent in Mandarin, English and Cantonese, described in the post how the flight attendants kept complaining in English and Cantonese about passengers who didn’t speak English well when taking flight CX987 on Sunday. Seated in the back row, the writer overheard conversations like “If you cannot say blanket, you cannot have it” and “The carpet is on the floor”. A voice recording of the incident was shared by the writer in another post.
The writer speculated that the concerned passenger was trying to get a blanket using known English words but was laughed at by the attendants who “can only speak English.”
The writer also mentioned another passenger was answered abruptly when inquiring about how to fill out the landing card.
Discriminating against anybody because of the language or dialect they speak is really unfortunate. It is worse if those guilty of doing so work for the service sector, where customer impression has a direct bearing on business.
