The couple, who argued with passengers sitting in their seats, will no longer fly with Cathay Pacific.
The Hong Kong-based airline banned the pair after video footage emerged showing the pair taunting, using vulgar hand gestures and jostling the seats of female passengers on the 14-hour flight from Hong Kong to London, according to local sources. the media.
Cathay Pacific has not responded to CNBC’s request for comment, but posted a statement on social media platform Xiaohongshu, often described as China’s Instagram, on Saturday saying it “sincerely” apologized for the incident.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy against behavior that violates safety regulations or disrespects the rights of other passengers,” the company wrote, according to CNBC’s Chinese translation.
The woman, who narrated part of the video posted on the same platform, said the couple harassed her after she refused to return to her seat.
In the video, he said he asked the flight attendant for help.
“I was surprised because it wasn’t meal time, but the flight attendant … he asked me to compromise, so I rejected the suggestion,” the woman said in the video, according to a CNBC translation from Chinese.
The harassment escalated after staff failed to intervene, he said. The video captures her chair moving from being kicked and pushed from behind. Eventually, he was moved to another seat, the video shows.
However, Cathay Pacific said in a statement that onboard staff had given two “serious” verbal warnings to the two disruptive passengers.
The rude behavior escalated to the point where passengers were close to intervening. Passengers can be heard in the video saying: “Show some decency!” “Don’t bother that little girl!” “You are an embarrassment to the people of Hong Kong.”
One of the banned passengers repeatedly referred to the seated passengers as “landmen”.
Online reactions
Despite Cathay Pacific’s ban, many social media users in mainland China criticized the carrier’s initial response to the dispute.
“Only after someone else spoke up did Cathay try to correct the situation. It’s not news to me that Cathay is not friendly to land travelers,” said one comment above.
For many mainlanders, the incident is reminiscent of another scandal that caused an uproar on Chinese social media last year. The carrier fired three flight attendants after a viral clip in which the crew was heard mocking a non-English-speaking passenger who mistakenly used the word “carpet” when asking for a blanket.
Social media platforms, such as Xiaohongshu, are rife with mainland Chinese who feel ill while in Hong Kong. Some people say they feel discriminated against in the city – where locals speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, the official dialect of China.
The separation between mainland China and Hong Kong has been an ongoing issue, due to the economic and cultural gap between mainland China and the former British territory, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Tensions were further heightened during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, as some local residents rebelled against Beijing’s strict control over the city.
Cathay Pacific is also caught in the crossfires, as it tries to stoke the wrath of the Chinese government after some staff took part in pro-democracy protests.
To recline or not to recline?
Sitting in your seat – a common and harmless act – has evolved into another battleground as “flight etiquette” gains prominence among the ever-evolving onboard behaviors.
As passengers have increased in size, the seat pitches – roughly, the distance between the seats from front to back – has dwindled, leading to a mid-air dispute over the small amount of plane real estate, from the armrests of the middle seat to the area of the passenger’s seat.
Unlike the consensus issue – the middle man gets two armrests, the passenger is given an area under the seat in front of him – there is widespread disagreement about the seating position.
Supporters often object to the seats for reasons, while opponents argue that it is a rude act, “period”, when it is done in economy class.
However, more and more say that the answer depends on a combination of factors, starting with the nature of the flight, its duration, whether the seat of the passenger behind you can sit and whether you get permission from the passenger first.
