Cathay’s ban on abusive passengers ‘right’ move, say Hong Kong industry leaders

Cathay Pacific Airways’ blacklisting of two Cantonese-speaking passengers who harassed a mainland Chinese traveller appears aimed at calming social media outrage and signalling that the Hong Kong flag carrier will not tolerate any form of physical harassment, observers have said.

A former Airport Authority board member and a lawmaker on Sunday defended the airline’s move to add the couple to its no-fly list, as its actions continued to draw mixed reactions online, particularly on the mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu, where the mainland traveller initially posted her complaint on Saturday.

In her post, the Mandarin-speaking young woman recounted a dispute on a Hong Kong-London flight last Tuesday, during which she said she was kicked and verbally abused with discriminatory language by the couple seated behind her after she reclined her seat. Part of the conflict was captured in her video post.

The post gained 180,000 likes and prompted more than 28,500 comments as of Sunday afternoon. It prompted the airline to announce on Saturday that the couple would be banned from future Cathay flights, citing the need to “maintain a strict zero-tolerance policy” towards disrespectful behaviour.

Speaking to the Post on Sunday, business magnate Allan Zeman, a former Airport Authority board member, said it was “right” that the carrier had acted promptly, given the sensitive dynamics between mainland China and Hong Kong.