KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France
KLM, offered a public apology on Friday after a crew
member sparked online outrage by posting a sign in Korean saying
passengers on a recent flight were not allowed to use a toilet
because of the new coronavirus.
Photos of the handwritten sign saying "lavatory for crew
members only" went viral in South Korea this week after a
passenger on a 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Seoul's Incheon
airport on Monday shared the images online.
The passenger accused KLM of discriminating against South
Korean passengers because the sign was only in Korean.
"Dear KLM... Today, you made it quite clear that you
discriminate against race. Using Corona Virus as an excuse. You
owe my friend and Korea a HUGE apology," wrote one Twitter user,
whose posts in English and Korean about the incident gathered
thousands of retweets and likes.
The hashtag BoycottKLM was trending on Korean Twitter.
On Friday, executives with KLM bowed as they publicly
apologised at a news conference in Seoul, saying they take
allegations of discrimination "very seriously" and promising to
prevent it from happening again.
"This is a human mistake, and we don't take it lightly,"
said Guillaume Glass, an Air France-KLM regional general
manager. "We are deeply sorry that this was viewed as
discrimination, which was absolutely not the intention of the
crew."
The crew said using only Korean on the sign was simply an
oversight. An English notice was added after passengers
complained, Glass said.
It is not KLM policy to reserve lavatories for crew, he
added.
On Wednesday, South Korea's transportation ministry released
a statement warning KLM over its "discriminatory measures" and
calling on the company to ensure it didn't happen again.
At a previously scheduled meeting on Friday, Dutch
Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard expressed regrets over the
incident to Transportation Minister Kim Hyun-mee, a ministry
official told Reuters.