Hong Kong  - Pilots and flight attendants with two Hong Kong airlines said Monday a threat to punish them if they fail to memorize a 68-word company creed appears to have been quietly dropped.

In May when all employees at sister airlines Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express were ordered to learn the lengthy creed and face punishment if they failed to recite it at spot checks.

The creed, described as an apothegm by management, included such lines as "Perseverance is the rule to sturdy progress" and "Diligence leads research to accession of knowledge".

In an accompanying memo, employees were told that management would conduct "random spot checks" and that an unspecified punishment would be meted out to those who failed to recite it.

The instruction, which saw flight attendants swatting up on the creed on their way to work, was described by pilots and flight attendants as insulting and "like being back in primary school."

However no staff have been subjected to spot checks so far and a memo last week made no mention of anticipated punishments for those who fail to recite the apothegm.

Instead, the latest memo simply praised the aims of the apothegm and said airline executives had been reciting it to each other at their weekly management meetings.

One pilot said: "Management appear to have decided it wasn't such a good idea after all and seem a little embarrassed by all the ridicule it has attracted."

Shirley Kwok, product manager for Hong Kong Express, declined to say if the threat of punishment had been lifted. "Regrettably, we cannot offer comment on the circulation of internal documents," she said.