Cathay CEO says cabin crew incident hurt Hong Kong’s image

An incident involving three Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. cabin crew making “inappropriate comments” about customers on a recent flight has set back the airline’s recovery and caused significant damage to its image, as well as Hong Kong’s, the carrier’s CEO told employees. Ronald Lam, who became CEO at the start of the year, was referring to a Sunday service from Chengdu to Hong Kong where a passenger recorded flight attendants joking about a Mandarin-speaking customer’s English language ability. The audio clip was posted online and went viral on social media in China. Cathay fired the three crew, who haven’t been identified publicly. “The incident has been widely circulated in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong media, causing significant damage to the image of Hong Kong and Cathay,” Lam wrote in a Thursday memo to staff that was seen by Bloomberg News. “We had to respond and act swiftly, which was necessary to protect the interest of the company and in turn our people overall... This incident has reinforced a perception held by some customers that we have not been able to provide high-quality services to customers from different backgrounds consistently... Many commentators refer to this long-held perception about us. In other words, they believe this is about more than this single incident, but is something much deeper which we need to address.”<br/>