Behind the scenes of Cathay Pacific’s new safety video

A sun-soaked coastline, a bustling dai pai dong, a rooftop Wing Chun class – these iconic Hong Kong scenes and more are now the stars of Cathay Pacific’s new inflight safety video.

Created in partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and progressively rolled out across our aircraft since August, the video encapsulates the city’s dynamism by matching familiar sights with essential safety protocols.

“Safety videos can be quite dry,” says Edward Bell, General Manager of Brand, Insights and Marketing Communications. “We wanted to make a safety video people want to watch. There’s no conflict between being entertaining and being informative.

From the start, one of the main aims of our new video was to showcase the city’s many wonders, so we worked with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to select the city’s best attractions for inclusion.

The city’s thrumming energy can be felt from the opening shot, which captures two members of our cabin crew, Cynthia Lam and Terry Lee, on Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay at dusk. “We shot right before rush hour to capture the best light,” says Lee. 

The duo then lead a “tour” through safety protocols against changing scenery: a crowded cha chaan teng, a waterfront promenade, and even the crest of a hill in Clear Water Bay Country Park. 

Each safety protocol is matched with a different aspect of life in Hong Kong. For example, oxygen masks drop from a hiking shelter, aiding an out-of-breath family. The lifejacket demonstration takes place among dragon boaters preparing to race. 

The video production required ingenuity, particularly in the set design. For a sequence involving a Cantonese opera singer getting ready for a performance, a storeroom at West Kowloon Cultural District’s Xiqu Centre was transformed into a backstage dressing room, complete with lighted mirrors, makeup brushes, an ornate headdress and a bouquet. In another scene, the team set up a row of lanterns along Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok to resemble aircraft emergency lights. “It felt dreamy to walk through all those beautiful lanterns,” Lam says. “The sight of them lit up along the street was breathtaking.” 

A beautiful design element is the signage seen throughout the video, such as the neon “No Smoking” sign in a dai pai dong, the red “Brace, Brace” stencil on a rooftop and a wooden “Oxygen Mask” plaque fashioned after trail markers in Hong Kong’s country parks. Custom-made for the video, these signs communicate important inflight safety messages while paying homage to Hong Kong graphic design. 

Ultimately, the focus of the video is safety, and it was essential that the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department’s regulations were met. “One area that was challenging to manage was egress on the emergency exit slides,” says Captain Tim Burns, General Manager Flying. “We used an animation for that section of the video because we felt that the message was particularly important, and we couldn’t really use a similar type of circumstance like we did with the rest of the protocols.”

On a flight back from Australia as a passenger, Captain Burns watched his neighbours’ reactions to the new inflight safety video. “Everyone was paying attention and commenting on it,” he says. “I was proud to see that it had the desired effect, and that people understood what we’re trying to deliver.”