While Lam said Cathay would still largely recruit its cabin crew from Hong Kong, he added that the airline would be “augmented by crew from outside of Hong Kong, recruited in line with our overall customer profile”.

As part of the policy, the carrier will begin gradually increasing the number of Mandarin-speaking crew on flights to and from the mainland, before moving on to all international routes.

Lam, who has set up and led a cross-departmental task force to look into service quality following the saga, said: “This will help ensure that every Chinese mainland flight will have consistent Putonghua in-flight announcements from August.”

The language capabilities of cabin crew will also be clearly marked on their name tags.

To encourage cabin crew to expand their language proficiencies, a monthly allowance would be introduced for those who could speak more than one Asian language, he said.

Existing cabin crew members will also receive additional training from July under a newly designed programme to foster a customer-centric environment.

“This aims to refresh our crew with the approach and skills necessary to provide our caring service consistently to all customers, as well as reinforce our inclusive culture,” Lam said in the memo.

The Post has reached out to the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants’ Union for comment.

The recruitment drive on the mainland marks the first since the axing of Cathay Dragon amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The regional sister airline to the city’s flag carrier flew to 51 destinations, 23 of which were north of the border, and included mainland crew.

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Andrew Yuen Chi-lok of Chinese University’s Aviation Policy and Research Centre said the mainland represented a key market for Cathay, given it was a “hub carrier” in the region, a term that acknowledged Hong Kong’s status as an aviation hub.

“It is important for the airline to maintain its competitiveness in the market by providing better service to the customers. It will be helpful to have more crew who can speak Putonghua,” he said.

However, Yuen said it was “more important” to improve employees’ customer-centric mindsets, an area that could involve corporate training, as well as improving the company’s working environment and morale.

According to a source familiar with Cathay’s operations, the memo reflected the importance placed on mainland customers’ spending power, with many passing through Hong Kong while flying to Europe and North America.

The insider said the majority of the carrier’s crew did not speak Mandarin and were composed of Hongkongers and those from other parts of Asia.

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Referring to the recruitment drive for Mandarin-speaking crew, he said: “Given the profile of mainland Chinese passengers, there is a need for such things. That’s why they are increasing the [language] allowances.”

Staff morale had also remained “very low” amid reduced pay, fewer crew on flights and complaints of reduced rest time between journeys, the insider added.

“Once the aircraft door is closed, it is the in-flight service manager and the crew who are running the whole show. So you have to put trust in these people, make sure they are well looked after, and maybe we get back on the road to recovery,” he said.

Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation advisory firm Endau Analytics, said he considered Lam’s memo a sign that the airline was increasingly moving toward becoming a “Chinese carrier” rather than a Hong Kong one.

“I expect Putonghua capability will be mandatory in due course,” he said.

The shake-up comes after the city’s flag carrier came under fire from mainland social and state media, as well as Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, over last month’s discrimination fiasco.

The incident came to light after a passenger on a flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong shared an audio recording on social media of cabin crew allegedly mocking the English-language proficiency of a customer.

In the recording, a flight attendant can be heard making fun of passengers for mixing up “carpet” and “blanket”, with one saying: “If you cannot say ‘blanket’, you cannot have it.”

Cathay subsequently fired the three flight attendants over the incident.

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In a bid to stay afloat amid reduced travel demand during the pandemic, Cathay Group shed 5,900 jobs, closed down Cathay Dragon and underwent a HK$39 billion (US$5 billion) restructuring led by the government.

Since 2019, the number of employees at Cathay Pacific has fallen by around 40 per cent. The airline in 2022 said it aimed to hire 2,000 cabin crew by the end of the year.