Qatar Airways suspends crew member over tweeted picture

Weeks after Qatar’s national carrier announced plans to relax its social media policies for employees, it has suspended a crew member for apparently causing cultural offense.

Qatar Airways said it has launched an investigation after receiving a complaint about a tweeted photo in which a crew member is seen smiling and holding up two black abayas.

The photo was flagged up by a Kuwaiti tweeter with 745,000 followers, who implied the man appeared to be mocking Gulf women who change out of their abayas when they travel to Europe.

The carrier responded to the message by saying, “Qatar Airways strongly expresses its respect for all passengers traveling aboard its flights. Therefore, the crew member in question has been suspended pending an investigation into the incident.”

The move comes as the airline relaxes a previous ban on cabin crew sharing photos of themselves in uniform on social media.

The suspension of the employee was appreciated by several people on Twitter, who thanked Qatar Airways for respecting passenger privacy.

 

 

Doha news