Air Canada came under criticism after a passenger filed a formal complaint alleging that a flight attendant wore a political pin shaped like a map of Israel but colored with the Palestinian flag and bearing an image of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The incident took place on a flight from Toronto to Atlanta, where a Jewish passenger who said he was disturbed by the political message lodged a formal complaint against the crew member. The dispute comes at a delicate moment for Air Canada, arriving just weeks after the carrier announced a high-profile global partnership with Dubai-based Emirates.
International aviation site Travel and Tour World reported that the complaint, along with the images circulating on social media, quickly drew attention, igniting debates about the role of personal expression versus professional conduct in the workplace, especially for airline employees.
Air Canada released a statement acknowledging the issue and confirming that they were looking into the matter. The airline emphasized that it has a code of conduct that all employees are expected to adhere to, especially when it comes to maintaining professionalism and neutrality in their interactions with passengers.
“We are reviewing this matter. We will address it directly with the employee involved, as appropriate,” Air Canada’s manager of corporate communications wrote to National Post via email. “We have a policy for uniform staff that covers which pins and symbols are permissible. There is a finite list of pins that are accepted, none of them political."
The passenger who filed the complaint, author and businessman Israel Ellis, told National Post in an email that there “is no place for political statements of any kind on a public airline, especially that which identifies clearly with a polarized issue used as a guise for antisemitism."
This incident, he said, “normalizes calls for the erasure of the Jewish people." He added that “A pin depicting Palestine in the stead of Israel is a clear call for genocide.”
The Air Canada incident joins a series of similar events that have gone viral in recent years, increasingly burdening global airlines, especially since the October 7 terrorist attack.
At the heart of the controversy is a question about the delicate balance between an employee’s freedom of expression and the company's demand for strict neutrality in a workplace that serves an international and diverse clientele.
Major U.S. airlines, including Delta, United and American, have also faced complaints about flight attendants wearing Palestinian symbols, including flag pins and even watermelon pins (a symbol associated with support for Palestinians).
In most cases, the public outcry and political climate have prompted carriers to tighten uniform policies: many have outright banned foreign flags or political symbols, permitting only U.S. flags, pins indicating language skills or official symbols of the airline and labor unions.
These policies are aimed at preventing friction between crew and passengers and avoiding reputational damage from displays of divisive political stances.