An Australian Airline boss was dragged to make an apology from Kenya’s High Commissioner to Australia Isaiya Kabira after he made an insult over Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
On May 27th this year, he wrote a letter asking for an apology from Greame Samuel, the chairman of an organisation for airline CEOs named Airlines for Australia and New Zealand (A4ANZ).
Mr. Greame Samuel had made remarks comparing JKIA to that of Somalia’s in regards to poor management on emergency landing.
“I can’t contemplate any place in the world, except perhaps Somalia or perhaps Nairobi, where an aircraft would, having had to make an unscheduled landing because of weather, had a car parked in front of the aircraft, saying you cannot move until the airline provides a Visa card to extract a charge of $18,000,” said Mr Samuel, the former head of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
He went ahead to categorize his remarks .
“That’s not Australia. That’s a Third World country. I’m assured by Qantas it doesn’t even happen in third world countries they are involved in.”
It is then he received tha apology letter in good faith.
“While it is in your full right to express your outrage, we find it extremely unfortunate that you draw parallels of inefficiency and imagery of piracy to a respected and much-admired airport of Nairobi,” the publication quotes Mr Kabira as saying.
Mr.Samwel regretted and apologized immediately.
“I would like to issue an unqualified apology for remarks I made during a panel discussion on May 24,” Mr Samuel said.
“I did not intend in any way to offend you or your country. In fact, in my comments I went on to say that I was sure that the behaviour described at Canberra Airport would not occur in Nairobi.”
