Air China apologises for ‘inappropriate’ tourism advice

One of China’s state-run airlines has gone into damage control after a diplomatic stir erupted around an article in its in-flight magazine warning travelers to avoid certain minority neighborhoods in London. Photos of the passage, shared on social media, show a paragraph on safety which told readers that precautions were needed when “entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people. We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.” Air China Thursday said the airline had removed all of its in-flight magazines. Blaming an “editorial mistake” by the company that publishes the magazines, it apologised for “inappropriate” remarks and said it was sorry for the negative impact on passengers and the airline. After reports in the British media about the article, a British Labour Party member of parliament, Virendra Sharma, said he asked the Chinese ambassador to the U. for an apology. Sharma said he wrote to the ambassador, saying “I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements.” <br/>