Cathay Pacific to hire cabin attendants from mainland China starting in July

HONG KONG, June 19 (Reuters) – Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK) It said on Monday it would launch initiatives to improve Mandarin language and cultural understanding, including hiring mainland Chinese cabin crew, in July after three crew members were fired for discrimination.

The announcement, sent in an internal memo to staff and seen by Reuters, said all cabin crew would receive “cultural training” and that Cathay would increase the reach of Mandarin-speaking services among cabin crew.

The move came weeks after cathay pacific fired three flight attendants following accusations by passengers of bias against non-English speakers, prompting criticism in Chinese state media.

“Expanding our crew’s coverage of Putonghua is a key objective of this initiative, given the increasing proportion of our customers who speak Putonghua,” Cathay chief executive Ronald Lam said in the memo. Mandarin is also known as Putonghua.
The Discrimination Incident in May it went viral on mainland Chinese social media platforms and sparked an outpouring of criticism from Chinese state media and Hong Kong government officials, including leader John Lee.

At the time, a passenger on a flight from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to Hong Kong wrote in an online post that flight attendants were complaining to each other about passengers in English and Cantonese.

They said flight attendants mocked each other for asking for a mat instead of a blanket in English.

“If you can’t say blanket in English, you can’t have it… The carpet is on the floor. Feel free to lie on it,” a flight attendant said, according to a recording that was widely circulated online.

Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the clip, prompting criticism on social media.

Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Farah Master; Edited by Gerry Doyle

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