TRAVEL advisory notices, which alert passengers to the risks of going to certain places, are standard business for frequent flyers. But last week brought an unusual one. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), America’s oldest civil-rights organisation, warned black flyers about the dangers of travelling with American Airlines.

The NAACP says that  “a pattern of disturbing incidents” has been reported by black passengers specifically about American Airlines. Such incidents “suggest a corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias”. Of the four incidents that the NAACP cite, two involved prominent black activists, PR Lockhart notes at Vox, a news site. Although the NAACP does not mention them by name, one is thought to be Rev William Barber, a former NAACP leader in North Carolina. He was removed from a flight from Washington, DC, after he responded to rude comments from two white passengers. The other is Tamika Mallory, a co-chair of the Women’s March movement, who was taken off a flight because of a seat assignment dispute.

American Airlines are remaining tight-lipped on the issue. When asked to comment, the carrier’s press office referred Gulliver to a statement from Doug Parker, the chief executive. Mr Parker notes his disappointment with the issuance of the warning but said that they have contacted the NAACP about it. Both parties have said they were looking forward to meeting and discussing the issue.

This is the second recent advisory notice from the NAACP. This summer the group issued one such warning about the state of Missouri—the first time it had done so for an entire state—due to suspected racial bias during traffic stops and other evidence of discrimination. In 2014, the shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked national protests and helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement. (The Department of Justice later concluded that the officer acted in self-defence.) The explosion of black activism that followed somewhat marginalised the NAACP, which for decades was the most-prominent group advocating for African-Americans. Ms Lockhart argues that the advisory notices may be part of the organisation’s attempts to regain relevance.

But for black travellers, the advisory notice serves a different purpose. Like in any industry, passengers are inclined to shy away from companies with a poor reputations. And if American fails to respond to these incidents and the advisory notice in a way that black people find satisfactory, it could easily lose customers. Moreover, airlines will not want to alienate African-Americans, if not for reasons of basic morality, then for economic ones. Spending by that group has been growing faster than that of the overall population and is expected to continue to do so.

Nevertheless, the carrier should hardly need that type of justification. If, as Mr Parker says, American truly does not tolerate any sort of discrimination, then it should be able to stamp out these kinds of incidents. Discrimination will not be going away anytime soon. But airlines can do their part to ensure that the issue is treated the seriously, and to reassure flyers, by acting decisively to redress any wrongdoing.

Source: economist
A black-rights group warns would-be passengers about American Airlines