HK flight attendants may launch 'No Mandarin' protest

(ECNS) – A Hong Kong Airlines flight attendant has launched a campaign on a social network platform to call for all flight attendants not to speak Mandarin on July 1 in protest of Chinese mainland passengers "occupying" a plane after a flight was delayed, then canceled, according to the HK-based Sky Post.

When a flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai was delayed last Friday night due to weather and traffic conditions, over 70 passengers from the Chinese mainland refused to get off the plane and staged an 18-hour sit-in on the plane. They finally left the plane about 3pm Saturday after the airline made an official apology and promised compensation of HK$800.

An unnamed flight attendant who served on the flight said all the crew members and other workers at the airline were angry about it.

An attendant named Apple said the airline should not have made compensations to the passengers, because it didn't cause the delay.

Several comments were left on the airline's Facebook page by Hong Kong netizens, saying that the apology and compensation encouraged such action by passengers.

A number of workers at the airline, however, said they didn't know the about campaign, and one said, "The company will definitely not launch such an activity officially."