Recently, a traveler from Nigeria shared with an international media outlet how she had a nasty traveling experience on an Air France plane.
Ms. Chibuzo Okereke was fkying from Nigeria to Canada via France.
“The Air France flight from Lagos to Paris had a small screen, no USB charging port, and a limited selection of entertainment in comparison with the Paris to Toronto flight. It was an older aircraft,” she told media house, Al Jazeera.
Her sentiments were echoed by anither Kenyan traveler who lamented that airports in Europe had open bias against travelers from Africa.
“At Brussels Airport, passengers travelling to Africa are bussed to a terminal that is more or less fortressed from the rest of the airport,” Duncan Omanga said.
“Airport authorities argue the terminal is for any passenger travelling to Africa, and hence not discriminatory to anyone, but it is obvious that a vast majority of those passengers are Africans.”
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Months after these sentiments were shared, another Kenyan who identified as Felistus Nderitu has come out to share what she thought to be bias against Africans when she traveled from London to Nairobi in May 2023.
“I observed with British Airways just yesterday that they have kind of different things they do for Nairobi destined flights compared to US or London destinations,” she said in a social media post.
“I noticed when I took BA flight from Nairobi on 6th May to US they did not spray the cabin with whatever spray they claim to stop spread of diseases, yet yesterday as I was coming back they sprayed the return flight from London but they had not sprayed US-London.”
Ms. Nderitu went on:
“Another observation is that flights from London to Nairobi are mostly old planes, while those destine to say London to US or vice versa are new. I noted that the flight attendants to the west are young hostess while the London, Nairobi are retirees or almost retirees.”
She added that she and other passengers got a full breakfast on the US – London flight. However, the London to Nairobi meam was a bangle wrapped in a foil paper.
The flight screen featured what and where one can visit in London, with a special mention of where Afro-Africans reside or dominate, as well as where one can visit in Nairobi (and calling Nairobi the concreate jungle with a number of good restaurants). The Western routes had no such characterization.