Cathay Pacific apologizes over crew's alleged discrimination

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.

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.

In the post, the writer said it was upsetting that the attendants were so malicious to passengers who couldn't speak English or Cantonese and that they lacked even basic respect to passengers. The writer reported the behavior to the chief steward before leaving the plane and would also make a formal complaint about it.