Air China condemned over ‘racist’ travel guide to London

British MPs have asked the Chinese ambassador to obtain an apology after Air China published a ‘racist’ warning in its inflight magazine

8 September 2016, 8:07am

1 min read

Air China's inflight magazine gave a 'racist' warning to travellers

China’s national airline has caused outrage after it advised travellers in its inflight magazine, Wings of China, to avoid visiting areas of London “populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people”.

The guide also added: “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.”

An image of text from the magazine was tweeted by Haze Fan, a Beijing-based producer for CNBC, who spotted the advice while travelling to the UK with her fiancé who is from London.

On Twitter, she asking London mayor Sadiq Khan what he thought of it. A spokesman for Khan reportedly said the mayor’s office was drafting a statement.

A piece of advice in Air China inflight magazine. What does @MayorofLondon think? @CNBCi @SeamusConwell @cnbcSri pic.twitter.com/u7SGfiyuXA
— Haze Fan (@journohaze) September 6, 2016

Two Labour MPs for London constituencies with significant proportions of ethnic minority residents have urged the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, to obtain an apology for their constituents.

Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, which has one of the largest south Asian populations in London, said the advice was “outrageous”.

Air China has not commented.