I noticed on my JFK-YVR flight there was no mandarin after the usual English/Cantonese broadcast. Then YVR-HKG the same thing. I was really surprise when the HKG-TPE doesn't have mandarin either. However, TPE-HKG does.

In my past years it's always three languages: English --> Cantonese --> Mandarin.

Is there a new policy or did the ICM forgot how to speak Mandarin?

about time!

well I guess HongCouver and HongRonto have majority Cantonese speakers hence the change. I came back from Johannesburg last week where there are a lot of mainlanders and the announcements both ways were ENG - Cant - Mand and same to and from Singapore last weekend.

Just a guess...

Perhaps they would take a look at the manifest and decide to use just English/Cantonese if the majority of the passengers have last names "Chan, Cheung, Chow, Fong, Ho, Ko, Lam, Lau, Leung, Lee, Ng, Siu, Wong, Yeung, Yip etc." vs. "Chen, Zhang, Zhao, Fang, He ,Gao, Lin, Liu, Liang, Li, Wu, Huang/Wang, Xiu, Yang, Ye etc."?

probably due to pax feedback, reduces the working load of FAs too.^

CX please only use English and Cantonese ...all the lenghty announcements disturbs me while watching a movie!

ohhh, so thats what they do

Isn't it above all a safety issue? Mandarin only speaking pax might want to be briefed about turbulence etc. as well...

so when we arrive in Joburg on CX 749 should we expect Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese etc ?

CX makes far too many in flight announcements on long haul flights, BA is great with no in flight garbage, we know the seat belt signs are on or off as the flight is either smooth or bumpy

you're assuming cx fa's mandarin is actually comprehensible and implying pax speaking none of english, cantonese and mandarin need no safety briefings. i would submit neither are valid, especially the former ...

I travel quite a lot with people who only speak and understand Mandarin, that's why prefer airlines where they feel comfy also.

When they do a study that asks based on what criteria do you choose your airlines I'm pretty sure the "language of announcements" falls on the bottom of the list behind important things like: service, friendliness, comfort, getting there on time, etc.

Anyway, 3 languages should be the max, 2 would be my preference. Have you guys try those Taiwan transportations? 4 freaking languages. Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and English. I mean literally everyone in Taiwan speaks Mandarin thanks to the solid education there, but to be politically correct they need 3 versions of spoken languages (only 7% of Taiwanese speak Hakka, but let's add them too), and the international language English. It's funny everytime I take the metro the announcements are so long in 4 languages.

Are you running the airlines, or the airlines management running the airlines under government guidance?

I speak English and can always understand the subsequent Cantonese after knowing what they would be saying, so have no problem with the language used by CX on board. However, I do know friends in Taiwan who detest CX because they don't have Mandarin announcement on board. As CX gets more and more Mainland customers who might not necessarily understand spoken English that well, I do think it is crucial for them to have Mandarin announcement at least on selected flts.

Regarding the announcements made in MetroTaipei and other public transportation in Taiwan, I think it is just a respect to people who are more familiar with their native language, be it Mandarin, Hokkien, or Hakka. I also think you underestimate the portion of Hakka speakers in Taiwan. I remember reading somewhere that 15% of Taiwanese are Hakka. Even though not all Hakka people speak Hakka fluently, especially the people in my generation (lol), 7% seems a bit low to me.