Cathay Pacific Finally Joins 20th Century
How’s this for some progress: Cathay Pacific has finally decided to let its female flight attendants decide what they want to wear instead of mandating a skirts-only policy that's been in place since the airline's founding in 1946. The less good news? Revamping uniforms for the airline’s thousands of crew members could take up to three years.
Cathay flight attendants have been asking for the option to wear pants since at least 2014. The current uniform for female cabin crew is an above-the-knee skirt “with two slits at the back, black stockings, and black heels,” The Guardian reports. Flight attendants say the uniform invites sexual harassment both on board planes and off. Hong Kong Airlines still has its skirts-only policy, the South China Morning Post reports. In the United States, major carriers already give flight attendants a choice of uniform options, including pants and skirts for women; British Airways scrapped its skirts-only rule in 2016.
Cathay is known as one of the world’s best airlines, coming tenth in our most recent Reader’s Choice Awards. Reviewers specifically like “its cuisine influenced by notable Hong Kong chefs,” “award-winning first and business class cabins (with lie-flat seats),” and “a recently refreshed premium economy cabin feels more ‘premium’ than coach.” The airline’s staff goes above and beyond, too: Cathay employees recently recognized some of their own with an award for the crew who worked a 2017 flight to Toronto that diverted to Ottawa. “[They] showed exceptional initiative and heartfelt care in ordering pizzas and beverages for all the affected passengers,” Cathay said in a statement. Now that’s first-class service.
