Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Surprised by language available on recent FRA-HKG

Two background points first: I've only ever flown CX LAX/SFO-HKG (and vv) and HKG-TPE/ICN/NRT. And, in my extensive UA/AA flying, to non-English-speaking destinations, the language of the destination has always been used in PA announcements (usually shorter versions of what's spoken in English).

To the reason for my post: I was surprised on my recent FRA-HKG that not a single on-board announcement was made in German, nor did the menu include a German translation in addition to English and Chinese. I really would have thought that on this route, with likely a good number of German speakers on board, that on-board staff would have included German speakers. On my connecting HKG-ICN, accouncements were in English/Chinese/Korean, so why not have that on the FRA-HKG, too?

Interestingly, all the boarding announcements were English and German (no Chinese), so to then transition totally away from German on boarding seemed odd.

Is this common on CX routes to Europe?

Is this common on CX routes to Europe?

While I haven't flown CX on these routes, I would guess no German announcements on CX's other european flights - London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

I think the OP is asking if there are Dutch-speaking FAs on HKG-AMS and if there are French-speaking ones on HKG-CDG.

Anyways, maybe they think that most traveling Germans can master the English language well enough that it's really not necessary to have a German-speaking FA on board.

On some of CX's flights, the welcome announcements made by the Captain have been the destination language. I have heard French and even Thai made by English Captains. So it depends if they want the added touch.

It will also depend if the crew have that ability to add foreign languages to their repetoire. Some do muster French here and there.. but I think asian langauages play a more important role than the european ones.

CX does have German/French speaking FA, as well as Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa Indonesia/Melayu, Tamil, Hindi as Sinhara for different routes.

At least 1-2 language speakers are required for certain routes, ie. TPE/KIX/ICN, etc

For European flights, i think they will still play the pre-recorded annoucement throughout the system.

At least 1-2 language speakers are required for certain routes, ie. TPE/KIX/ICN, etc

Ditto for NRT - on flights to and from there, there are always announcements in Japanese.

To the reason for my post: I was surprised on my recent FRA-HKG that not a single on-board announcement was made in German, nor did the menu include a German translation in addition to English and Chinese. I really would have thought that on this route, with likely a good number of German speakers on board, that on-board staff would have included German speakers. Interestingly, all the boarding announcements were English and German (no Chinese), so to then transition totally away from German on boarding seemed odd.

Is this common on CX routes to Europe?

After WWII, almost all Germans learned to speak English. :D