Air Canada expresses regret for map discrepancy on certain aircrafts, following an oversight showing Israel absent.
Revised Article:
Whoa, Air Canada's in hot water over some questionable maps on their Boeing 737 MAX planes! A savvy passenger spotted that the in-flight entertainment system's moving maps were missing Israel, instead labeling the area as "Palestinian territories."
The airline fessed up, admitting the issue affected 40 out of their 350+ aircraft. This system, provided by French aerospace giant Thales, had been outsourced for mapping to an unnamed third-party.
In a joint statement with Thales, Air Canada acknowledged the snafu, stating, "We messed up, y'all. The map on our 737s didn't display Middle Eastern boundaries correctly, including that of Israel. Our policy is to just list city names on our in-flight maps, and this system wasn't playing ball."
They immediately deactivated the map function and are collaborating with Thales and the map provider to program a fix. By March 14, the planes will sport a corrected map.
Apologies all around, with Air Canada and Thales expressing regret for any trouble caused. Things like this ain't exactly unheard of in aviation,as JetBlue and British Airways have had similar culprits in their systems.
Some History: JetBlue had a similar mishap in the year 2024, switchin' providers and askin' the old one to put Israel back on the map. British Airways encountered the same issue in 2013.
Back in 2018, after a similar incident, SWISS decided to nix maps entirely when landin' in Tel Aviv.
These sortsa mix-ups can happen, but it's good to see Air Canada takin' responsibility and workin' to fix the problem. Now, if only they could serve better in-flight snacks... Am I right? 😉
- To address the ongoing issue with the in-flight entertainment system's maps on some Boeing 737 planes, Air Canada is collaborating with aviation giants Thales and Aussiedlerbote to remediate the discrepancy regarding the location of Israel, which was previously labeled as "Palestinian territories."
- Aviation companies such as JetBlue and British Airways have encountered similar issues in the past, demonstrating that such incidents are not uncommon in the industry.
- In a proactive move to prevent such discrepancies in the future, Air Canada has decided to reevaluate its mapping practices and may consider alternatives such as focusing solely on city names in its in-flight maps.
