The pre-independence Arabic name for Haifa appears instead.
“IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal) reports that British airline bmi has removed Israel from the electronic maps displayed to passengers in some of its planes. “IDF Radio" claimed that the reason was to avoid offending Muslim passengers.
According to “IDF Radio", Israel does not appear in maps on bmi flights between London and Tel Aviv, and that the pre-independence Arabic name for Haifa appears instead. In addition, the electronic maps show the distance between the plane and Mecca.
bmi said in response, "This is a fault. The electronic map will be removed from the airline's two planes that operate the route to Tel Aviv. We make every effort to take passengers' sensitivities into account through an apolitical policy."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 30, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009