Cathay Pacific refutes claims of firing staff over seat-reclining dispute

Cathay Pacific has denied firing or warning any flight attendants over handling a dispute involving a mainland Chinese passenger and a Cantonese-speaking couple.

This comes after a dispute over seat-reclining etiquette between the couple and the Chinese passenger escalated to an insult during a flight from Hong Kong to London last Tuesday (17 September). 

Cathay then said on Sunday that it had banned the couple from taking any of its flights moving forward, saying it has "a strict zero-tolerance policy" towards behaviours that disrespect fellow passengers.

Cathay has also reportedly issued an internal warning to the flight attendant involved and conducted a review of the incident, according to local reports such as HK01.

However, Cathay clarifies that it has not warned or terminated any cabin crew in relation to the incident, according to a statement seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

Videos of the incident went viral on social platforms, showing the Cantonese female passenger repeatedly insulting the mainland passenger during the flight. Meanwhile, the male passenger placed his hands on the back of her seat and shook it violently.

"(The female passenger) told me to put my seat up because it was blocking her husband’s view of the television. After I refused, she started putting her foot on the armrest in front of me and kicked my arm. Once she realised my Cantonese wasn't very fluent, she began calling me 'mainland girl' (大陸妹) and used other highly discriminatory languages. I called the flight attendant again, and to my shock, she asked me to adjust my seat. I was shocked because it wasn’t even mealtime, and yet she wanted me to compromise,” the mainland passenger vented on Xiaohongshu. 

The female passenger said she repeatedly requested the cabin crew for mediation and to change her seat, but was unsuccessful. Eventually, she was reassigned to a premium economy seat.

Speaking in an interview with Phoenix TV last Sunday, the mainland passenger said she wanted Cathay Pacific to apologise and provide a response, noting that many similar incidents have happened before. She added that despite the airline's previous apologies and responses, it seems there has been no improvement. 

Don’t miss: Cathay Pacific's apology and firing of cabin crew members: Will it be enough to weather the PR storm?

Back in May last year, Cathay Pacific apologised and announced the firing of three cabin crew members who were accused by a passenger of insulting and discriminating against non-English speakers.

This came after details of the alleged incident during a flight from Chengdu in Sichuan province to Hong Kong revealed on Xiaohongshu went viral across social platforms. The Xiaohongshu user made several accusations against some cabin crew members on the flight CX987, including some members teased passengers’ language ability by saying in English: “If you cannot speak ‘blanket’, you cannot have it,”, “Carpet is on the floor”.

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