A couple of months ago, Cathay Pacific revealed that it would start hiring flight attendants from mainland China, and would provide all flight attendants with ”culture training” on dealing with passengers from mainland China. We’ve now seen the airline start this process, so I think it’s interesting to cover what that looks like.
Continue reading: Cathay Pacific Hiring Flight Attendants From Mainland China
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It certainly was surprising last time (early 2023) I flew on CX to mainland that with a plane full of mainland passengers, their announcement was only in English and Cantonese. Even western based airlines have announcements in mandarin and dedicated mandarin speaking attendants.
No matter what they do now, they can't salvage their tarnished reputation in China. The younger generation in mainland China, which is witnessing the country's rapid development, will naturally lean towards other options when it comes to the niche and highly profitable premium lifestyle choices. China Southern is currently serving soup in Business class, and they are quickly catching up to Cathay Pacific.
At the end, it always comes down to cost. Mainland China is experiencing high unemployment rate (some experts are suggesting the real unemployment rate up to 50%), and Cathay can hire at lower rate there than they can in HK, where it has a low unemployment rate at around 2.4%.
Farewell, Cathay and HK. We had a good run. As we are now seeing in the US, authoritarian communists tend to ruin everything.
Hong Kong is being swallowed up by Mainland government. This was just a matter of time. The exodus of those in HK who can get away is already happening. HK has already lost its premier business ranking to Singapore and it’s moving further and further down the list. HK simply doesn’t see itself as Mainland Chinese but the government is sure as heck going to make them act like it. You can feel the tension and more unrest is going to happen in HK. It’s a beautiful place but it’s definitely becoming less attractive for international businesses which is making them more dependent on Mainland which is what the government wants.
Cost wise a good move as the job market in mainland is terrible. But culture wise, a terrible move. I can't imagine the animosity that will be so prevalent. There is such a distrust and hatred for mainlanders by HKers and likewise the view of HK folks by mainlanders aren't that positive either. Well good luck to CX.
LOL only someone who knows nothing about authoritarian communists would make such as asinine comparison.
No surprise that that FA was fired, that's a rude way to talk to a customer no matter what.
I definitely feel sorry for folks who've lived in Hong Kong for a long time, it was clear as soon as the British decided to give it back that the people there who didn't have the money to get out were going to be in for a rough ride. They've been living the epitome of Capitalism and now, in just a few years, they will be living under a Communist regime. They are for sure gonna suffer.
Oh no.....
Hopefully they would indicate if the flight has Chinese FA so premium passengers may choose other flights.
Most of mainland people are just uneducated
Worth pointing out that, before mainland got HK back, Hong Kong people had zero vote with a white governor assigned by UK, when it was colonized. Are you aware?
One step closer to Cathay becoming a crappy Mainland airline. Terrible decision.
As a Venezuelan who lived 40 years in Venezuela, I totally agree with Mantis comment.
They were not talking TO the customer. They were talking about it BEHIND the customer.
Soup? This standard is a bit too low, isn't it? Or are you trying to say they are really that bad?
Some data points from the ground. I flew both CX and CZ intra-Asia recently. The CZ crew was more professional. The CX FA seemed like she didn't want to be there, and their A330 regional J seat is outdated and extremely uncomfortable. CX has ways to go in the climb back to the top tier, and they'd be lucky to have a crew of my CZ flight's caliber.
The news say it loud clearly. The mainland crew will be "based In HK" but they can live in the mainland if they can commute to the airport within 90 mins (so Shenzhen is OK definitely).
And they will serve at flights other than those to and from Mainland. They will also have the same renumeration package with the HK crew. CX will help get them a HK work visa
Hi Lucky, the Cathay group has been hiring and staffing flights with mainland crew for some time prior to the pandemic, on since-closed Cathay Dragon, the airline formerly known as Dragonair ("KA"). Crews were based in Shanghai and flew Hong Kong-mainland routes, including multi-day patterns to/from HKG and other cities in China in the KA network, not just Shanghai. Cathay's Headlands Hotel is available for outport crew staying overnight in HK. Although it's true this is the first time for mainline Cathay to hire mainland outport crews, most locals based in Hong Kong respected Cathay Dragon/Dragonair as a full service, premium airline and those flights were regularly staffed by mixed or mainland crews. Just to put some context!
The slow but certain, tragic 'China-risation' of Hong Kong, Going to difficult to train main-landers, up to the standards of CX FAs. (Main-land Chinese are easy to spot in HKG, as they lack a certain sophistication.... and lack any knowledge of HKG /Western etiquette.)
Wasn't there also a heated discussion a few years ago....over whether Cantonese (or Mandarin) should be used first, for the pre-takeoff safety briefing !
Yeah and at the same time over in the mainland, millions were dying in the Great Leap Forward and then the Cultural Revolution. They didn't get to vote on that either but I guess they were happy what's more important was their leader wasn't white.
They be waving the PRC flag soon ijbol, best wishes from the country with the worst declining population!
DT
Sad to see a Premium airline with nearly 80 years of history just going down like Hong Kong (more than 100 years in making) in 4 years.
A tempest in a teapot. This strikes me as a sensible business decision for an airline still struggling with ramping up operations, nothing more, nothing less.
CX (formerly with sister airline KA) has always had a huge share of mainland passengers, even if not to the extent they do now, given the mainland route restrictions, a situation which will revert closer to the pre-pandemic normal sooner or later.
It's a sign of our times that people want to see politics behind everything. All I have to say is, I have flown CX many times since the pandemic (I'm based in HK), and it's still a great airline with great service, superior to all other OneWorld carriers I have flown recently, including JAL. With all HK lounges finally reopened, the airline seems to have its mojo back. Now let's just hope air fares come back down to earth!
Cathay: hiring mainland FAs probably to work mainland routes and assuage mainland customer anxieties, an obvious customer-first business decision given recent controversies and the customer base
OMAAT commenters: The end of HK! Communism! Going down the tubes!
Really? These all sound completely ridiculous
Yes, John. They will advertise in advance where the FA are from, as well as height, weight, age and interest in people called John.
Talk about poor education.
Yeah. Chinese people aren’t sophisticated uncivilized bastard right?
This is to those who says westerner hates CCP and not Chinese people. That’s a myth. Just look at this tone deaf comment. Why is western etiquette associated with sophistication and the ROW aren’t? These type will only respect you asians if you aren’t from mainland and bow down to the west.
Sick.
Horrible decision! Too terrible to be true hiring Mainlander crews, low educated without understanding of Chinese and Western etiquette in international way. Majority of Mainlanders are not educated much. They love to create conflicts with others. If CX really wants to have their crews speaking good mandarin then please recruit crews from Taiwan, at least they are much better in servicing. CX is just getting cheap to hire those mainlander crews!
Now based on this comment, we can see those who hates the CCP are in fact hater of the Chinese people. Nice one whoever uses that defense to hate ccp only but not chinese people. Haha they’re uneducated bastard right?
They produce the most college graduates and doctorates. God i love to see some of the ignorant white people get schooled by sophisticated chinese.
Cathay is now hiring cheap crew members from China. They've also established crew bases in Beijing and Shanghai (international bases closed due to COVID are not returning). This demonstrates Cathay's shift in branding and values, as its international identity erodes and transforms slowly (and quietly) into a Chinese airline.