CATHAY Pacific Airways, a Hong Kong-based airline, issued its third apology on Tuesday evening and decided to dismiss three flight attendants following a passenger’s complaint. The complainant reported that the cabin crew made discriminatory remarks against non-English-speaking passengers during a flight.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said yesterday that he has proposed to Cathay Pacific Chief Executive that the incident is a serious matter and similar incidents will not be allowed to happen again. “Their words and deeds damaged the bond between Hong Kong people and their compatriots in the mainland and undermined Hong Kong’s culture and values of respect and courtesy,” Lee said.

“I am very upset about the inappropriate comments of some Cathay Pacific crew members. The incident is a serious breach of Hong Kong’s hospitality, values and ethical standards,” said Lam Sai-hung, the HKSAR Secretary for Transport and Logistics, on Tuesday.

To prevent similar incidents from happening again, the chief executive of the airline will personally lead an inter-departmental working group to conduct a review, re-examine service processes, personnel training and related systems, to improve the service quality of the company.

The executive said in a statement issued Tuesday: “I would like to reiterate that Cathay Pacific Airways has a zero-tolerance attitude toward serious breaches of our rules, regulations, and code of ethics by individual employees.”

“We solemnly apologize again for the passenger’s experience on the fight CX987 on Sunday, which has aroused widespread public attention. We have conducted internal investigation and will release the result within three days,” Cathay Pacific said Tuesday.

On Sunday, a netizen posted a complaint on Chinese social media and e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), revealing that during a flight CX987 from Chengdu in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province to Hong Kong, cabin crew were heard grumbling in English and Cantonese about passengers who couldn’t speak English. The netizen also posted a recording of the crew’s conversation.

The recording contained quotes like: “If you cannot say blanket, you cannot have it,” and “carpet is on the floor.” According to the netizen, an air hostess also told her colleague “They don’t understand human language” after reminding an old man via broadcast in Cantonese to return to his seat until the safety light went off. The man had intended to take a child to toilet just after the plane took off.

Netizens said it was not the first instance of discrimination, and they asked Cathay Pacific to take serious action. Some also said that providing services in multiple languages is a common practice for airlines, and Cathay Pacific is obliged to provide services in Putonghua, as the flight involved was from Chengdu to Hong Kong.(Global Times)