Summary
- Cathay Pacific Airways faced backlash on social media after flight attendants were accused of discrimination against passengers from Mainland China.
- Cathay Pacific will provide additional training in Mandarin language proficiency to its crews and hire flight attendants from Mainland China to diversify its team.
- Cathay Pacific recently launched its first-ever cabin crew recruitment drive in Mainland China, with plans to hire 200-300 flight attendants this year and aiming to hire 1,000-2,000 by 2025.
While running an airline anywhere is a tricky business, there are some parts of the world where regional cultural, political and economic pressures add another whole layer of complexity for management to deal with. Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China throws up plenty of curve balls for Cathay Pacific Airways as it straddles the one country-two systems tightrope.
The power of social media
Cathay Pacific Airways (Cathay) hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in May when three flight attendants were accused of discrimination against passengers from Mainland China. On a flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong, the trio were overheard making derogatory comments about a passenger who wanted a blanket but instead asked (in English) for a carpet.
Cathay faced a social media storm in China and beyond, and in response, CEO Ronald Lam fired the three flight attendants and said he would lead a cross-departmental review of services and training to ensure that improvements would be made. A passenger on the Airbus A330 flight had posted an audio recording on social media that revealed a flight attendant saying in English, "If you can't speak English you can't have a blanket," leaving Lam with few options other than dismissal.
Two outcomes of the review were that crews would be given additional training in Mandarin language proficiency and that Cathay would hire flight attendants from Mainland China to enhance Mandarin language proficiency and diversify its team.
A positive outcome from a bad situation
Last Friday, Cathay got to work on the latter initiative when it launched its first-ever cabin crew recruitment drive in Mainland China (China). The 2023 Chinese Mainland Talent Recruitment Plan launched at the Qianhai International Talent Hub in Shenzhen and runs until Wednesday, August 30th, with the carrier looking to hire 200-300 flight attendants from the Mainland this year.
By 2025, it expects to hire 1,000-2,000 flight attendants out of 4,000 recruits from China, and Mainland hiring activities will be ongoing. On Friday, Lam said:
"Cathay Pacific has been enhancing connectivity between Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world by leveraging the advantages of its strategic base in Hong Kong together with the support received from the Chinese Mainland.
"We will continue to strengthen our presence in, and attract talent from, the Chinese Mainland in response to the increasing number of Phutonghua-speaking customers while building a diverse and inclusive Cathay family."
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Hiring activities in the Chinese Mainland will be an ongoing feature of the airline's recruitment, and it believes its largest cabin crew community outside of Hong Kong will be in China. It also plans to add more opportunities for Mainland recruits for roles including cadet pilots, cabin crew, IT professionals, ground employees and customer service officers.
No mention is made of the May incident in Cathay's statement, but Director Service Delivery Mandy Ng did say the airline will continue its recruitment in the Chinese Mainland, building a diverse and inclusive team and providing "excellent and caring service consistently to our customers."
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