Air Canada erased Israel from the maps on its planes – and is now trying to apologize
A storm following an embarrassing discovery: the entertainment system maps on Air Canada’s Boeing 737 aircraft displayed Israel as the “Palestinian Territories”. Footage posted on X shows the screen displaying a map of Israel with the locations of the cities Haifa, Netanya, Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Gaza and Khan Younis, as if it were an ordinary list of cities in the same country, with no mention of the word “Israel”, and the country name written only as “Palestinian Territories”. After an angry passenger posted about it on social media, the public reaction came quickly, and the company was forced to stop displaying the maps, update them – and issue an apology.
Israel erased – and the anger erupted
A passenger who noticed the blunder filmed the screen on the plane and posted it on X (formerly Twitter). The internet quickly erupted, and angry responses flooded Air Canada. “This isn’t a mistake – it’s an erasure!” tweeted one user, while others expressed anger at the “humiliation” the company had caused Israel.
Air Canada, which rushed to put out the media fire, announced that it had disabled the map system on the aircraft in question, and until the software update is complete, passengers won’t be able to view the maps at all.
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The changes and the apologies
The company tried to downplay the blunder, explaining that “Air Canada’s general policy is to display only city names on its aircraft maps,” and described the incident as a “technical inconsistency”. Together with entertainment system manufacturer Thales, the company worked to change the maps to align them with the rest of its fleet.
Air Canada and Thales, the maker of the in-flight entertainment system installed on 40 of the airline’s Boeing 737 aircraft (Air Canada’s fleet totals more than 350 aircraft), told PassportNews in a joint response that: “It was brought to Air Canada’s attention that the interactive map on its Boeing 737 aircraft did not consistently display the borders of countries in the Middle East, including the borders of the State of Israel, at all zoom levels. Air Canada’s general policy is to display only city names on its aircraft maps, and the configuration of this specific system did not match the company’s policy.”
“Air Canada will begin updating the aircraft from March 14, and the maps will remain disabled until the process is complete,” said the joint statement with Thales. Both companies also “apologized for the distress caused as a result of this situation”. “Air Canada and Thales apologize for the distress caused as a result of this situation.”
What’s next?
Despite the apology and promises to fix it, Air Canada stirred up an unnecessary storm with a loyal customer base. The question that remains open is – how will Israelis react in the event of a similar “glitch” in the future?
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