Air China has come under after an in-flight magazine, Wings of China, warned passengers to beware of BAME persons whilst travelling in London. The offensive article was spotted by Haze Fan, a Beijing based producer from CNBC, a US news channel.
The article said:
“London is generally safe – but be careful in areas populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.”
It advised peoples not to go out at night and for women not to travel alone. Wings of China apologised to Air China for “triggering misinterpretations among media and readers and creating significantly negative impact on your company’s operation and brand image.
“The inappropriate expressions in the article are merely the mistakes made by the editors, but in no means represent the views of the magazine.
“We will immediately withdraw all the publications, carefully learn this lesson, improve our management to make sure there will be no more similar mistakes. We also would love to send sincere apologies via Air China to all the readers and passengers who felt uncomfortable because of this.”
Air China has also apologised and said:
“Air China always highly respects the cultures and traditions of people from different ethnicities in the world … Air China has hired a large amount of local employees in many places and everyone gets along with each other, jointly dedicated to building the bridges for cross-nation friendship and equal communication.”
