A Black family is accusing an airline of discriminating against them after airline staff refused to remove a white woman who was sitting in one of their seats.
According to Yahoo News, Nigerian Canadian Busayo Alle traveled from Vancouver to Calgary on Canada’s Flair Airlines with her 12-week-old baby and her mother-in-law on April 14. Shortly after boarding the aircraft, she found a white woman sitting in her seat. She asked her to move, and after the woman refused (throwing Alle the middle finger in the process, Atlanta Black Star reported), Alle asked airline staff (including the captain) for help. To her surprise, they asked her to move instead, and even threatened to kick her off the flight.
Her husband, whose name appears to be Adeola, described the incident in the viral video.
“If you flip the script, what would have happened?” he asked in the video, adding if it were a Black person sitting in Alle’s seat, they would have been reprimanded without hesitation.
@adeolaalle Racism and Discrimination on flair airline from Vancouver to Calgary @Globalnews.ca @CTVNews #racism #racismincanada #discrimination
Along with his description, Adeola included footage of the incident. It shows flight attendants and the plane’s captain rushing to the white woman’s side, not Alle’s.
“If you [don’t] calm down, we need to get you out of this aircraft,” a Flair Airlines flight attendant told Alle in the footage.
“I can’t be calm after what you just did,” Alle responded, Atlanta Black Star reported.
The video sparked outrage on TikTok.
One TikTok viewer commented, “[This] is madness! Telling her to calm down ???”
“The way those flight attendants are taking to this woman is infuriating,” added another.
One viewer commented, “unacceptable,” and tagged news outlets and Flair Airlines.
And another pointed out that racial discrimination in Canada is rarely discussed.
“There’s so much racism in Canada but it’s covered and never talked about like other countries,” they wrote.
Viewers on Twitter were angry too.
“This is absurd. The person with the correct boarding pass should get the seat PERIOD,” one wrote.
This is absurd. The person with the correct boarding pass should get the seat PERIOD.https://t.co/PcCtdmnZrH
— Doug Little 🌹✊ (@jdouglaslittle) May 4, 2023
Another tweeted, “Please sue the airline, that’s the only way this discrimination will eventually stop, most especially for the sake of our coming generations. She had her seat, why take up a black persons seat and think you can bully your way out of it?”
Please sue the airline, that’s the only way this discrimination will eventually stop, most especially for the sake of our coming generations. She had her seat, why take up a black persons seat and think you can bully your way out of it?
— Lade (@amkemki) April 16, 2023
And one Twitter user accused Flair Airlines staff of gaslighting Alle.
“Imagine telling her to calm down when she was calm. Talk about corporate rascist gaslighting,” they wrote.
Imagine telling her to calm down when she was calm. Talk about corporate rascist gaslighting.
— Uncle Zeek (@PapiGra) April 17, 2023
Flair Airlines has addressed the incident, issuing a statement shared by a spokesperson to Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News reported.
“Flair Airlines staff did ask the passenger in 2A to move to her assigned seat, but she refused multiple times. Unfortunately, this caused the situation to escalate,” the representative said.
The rep added the flight attendant tried to calm the situation.
“The resolution taken for the flight was to seat the passenger in the window seat on the other side of the aircraft — the same row and seat, just on the other side of the plane,” they explained.
They didn’t address Adeola’s claims of racism but noted passenger safety and comfort as the airline’s top priority.
“We spoke directly to the passenger first to listen to her experience and concerns first hand, to offer our sincerest apologies for any distress, and to discuss ways the airline can remedy her concerns,” the rep said.
