On Saturday, Tiffany wrote about President Trump’s executive order, which created chaos for many international travelers, as those with passports from seven countries were banned from entering the U.S., with immediate effect.
Regardless of how you feel about the decision as such, I think we can all agree this created confusion and chaos, given the lack of notice, and the lack of clear directives for those who were supposed to enforce the rules. Furthermore, there were protests at airports around the country that contributed even more to the chaos.
President Trump blamed the chaos largely on Delta’s outage on Sunday night, though we haven’t heard much from airline executives, both about the travel ban as such, and about the state of airports this weekend.
Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
However, American’s CEO, Doug Parker, sent the following letter to employees yesterday, which is an interesting read:
Dear Team Members,
Over the weekend, American was notified that per a Presidential Executive Order, nationals of seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Libya —will be prohibited from entering the United States for at least 90 days.
As a global airline, we recognize that these orders place difficult operating conditions on some of our team members. Colleagues across the country have been working closely with government officials to interpret and apply the order. Crews, Reservations agents and airport teams have witnessed turmoil in our airports that shows how divisive this order can be. However, it is the current law of the U.S., and so long as that is the case, we must comply. We are doing everything we can to care for any affected customers and team members and treat them with the utmost respect.
As a global employer, however, this Executive Order does not affect the values that this company is built upon — those of diversity, inclusiveness and tolerance. At a time when the world is watching, our industry affords us a unique opportunity to show firsthand what true compassion and kindness look like. Treating each other with respect and dignity does not belong to a political party and transcends any law.
Be it with your colleagues or customers, please continue to work with the same open-mindedness, mutual respect and appreciation of diversity that defines — and always will define — American Airlines.
Well said!
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