American Airlines CEO hopes to ‘rebuild trust’ after Black passengers wrongly removed

American Airlines’ CEO Robert Isom has said the airline – the world’s largest – will implement new measures, including an advisory group, after eight Black passengers were wrongly removed from a Phoenix to New York flight after a complaint about body odor. The removal caused outrage, and three of the passengers involved in the January incident – who were not seated together and did not know each other – sued the carrier. They said in a statement that “American Airlines singled us out for being black, embarrassed us, and humiliated us”. In a note to employees, Isom said that the passengers’ treatment was unacceptable and that the company “fell short of our commitments and failed our customers”. He also said the airline was committed to working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, to “rebuild trust”. “I am incredibly disappointed by what happened on that flight and the breakdown of our procedures,” Isom wrote. “We fell short of our commitments and failed our customers in this incident.” The airline said in a statement that it was “holding those involved accountable, including removing team members from service”. The airline is also updating its process for handling customer allegations of discrimination or bias as well as criteria for removing passengers from a flight. The civil rights group had previously advised Black travelers to avoid the airline over “discriminatory” behavior and “corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias”.<br/>