PrintMay 1, 2009
BMI's brilliant marketing strategy (updated)
British airline BMI got in a spot of trouble with its Israeli passengers. It seems that the in-flight map for a couple of trips to Israel failed to include the Jewish state on a list of destinations that BMI flies to.
Bad enough, right? It's what they included on the map that has Israeli passengers upset as this story from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reveals:
Bad enough, right? It's what they included on the map that has Israeli passengers upset as this story from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reveals:
Israeli passengers complained to a British airline after Israel was not included on the in-flight map.
The BMI airline runs two low-cost flights from London to Tel Aviv daily and also flies to countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
The airline said the map, which showed the distance to Mecca and other Muslim holy sites, and identified Haifa as Khefa -- the Arab name for the city pre-1948 -- was tailored to its passengers destined for Arab countries. The two planes bound for Israel that featured the controversial maps originally had been scheduled to fly to an Arab country, according to reports.
A company statement called the showing of the map on a flight to Tel Aviv a "logistic failure" and said the map will be removed from planes flying to Israel, according to Ha'aretz.
Ethel Fenig has the right idea:
Well, it is just too, too easy--and too, too necessary--to leave Britain off my flight and touring. plans.
Update -- Thomas Lifson adds:
BMI has a pattern of catering to Arab sensibilities, sometimes apparently overdoing it. Consider this story from The UK Times:
A BRITISH air stewardess was sacked for refusing to fly to Saudi Arabia after she was ordered to wear a traditional Islamic robe and walk behind male colleagues.Lisa Ashton, a £15,000-a-year stewardess with BMI, was told that in public areas in Saudi Arabia she was required to wear a black robe, known as an abaya. This covers everything but the face, feet and hands. She was told to follow her male colleagues, irrespective of rank.Ashton, 37, who was worried about security in the country, refused to fly there, claiming the instructions were discriminatory. She was sacked last April."It's not the law that you have to walk behind men in Saudi Arabia, or that you have to wear an abaya, and I'm not going to be treated as a second-class citizen," Ashton said last week. ...Saudi experts and companies that recruit women to work in the country say it is a “myth” that western women are required to walk behind men. There is no requirement for them to wear the abaya in public, though many do.Earlier this year an employment tribunal in Manchester ruled that BMI was justified in imposing “rules of a different culture” on staff and cleared it of sexual discrimination. Ashton has consulted Liberty, the human rights organisation, and may seek a judicial review of the decision.
