On board map labels Israel as' Palestinian territory &#

According to CNN, recently, Air Canada (hereinafter referred to as Air Canada) sparked controversy over the use of dynamic maps on some Boeing 737 MAX models that did not display the name of Israel, but instead marked the relevant areas as "Palestinian territories". ​

On March 14th, Air Canada and France's Thales Group jointly issued a statement acknowledging that some Boeing 737 MAX models use dynamic maps with boundary display issues. "Some people have noticed that the interactive maps on Air Canada's Boeing 737 fleet do not depict certain boundaries in the Middle East region at different magnification levels, including the border of the State of Israel." The statement announced that the problem map function has been discontinued and plans to complete the entire fleet map update before the 14th. ​

CNN  It is reported that the incident was initially discovered and reported to the airline by a passenger during the flight, and the onboard dynamic map involved in the problem was outsourced by the French Thales Group to an unnamed third-party company for production. Air Canada claims to have discovered issues with dynamic maps on 40 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Air Canada also stated that its policy is generally to label city names on aircraft maps, and the boundary display issue on third-party maps this time does not comply with Air Canada's policy. ​

The Daily Mail reported that this incident has also caused a huge uproar online, with many netizens accusing Air Canada of "erasing Israel" from the map. ​

According to the joint statement, "Air Canada and Thales Group deeply apologize for the anxiety caused by this matter", and currently Thales Group is working closely with airlines and third parties to resolve this issue as soon as possible. ​

CNN stated that this issue is not the first time it has appeared in the aviation industry. Public records show that in 2024, JetBlue Airways apologized and replaced its map supplier due to similar issues. British Airways also experienced a similar incident in 2013. In 2018, after a similar issue occurred, Swiss International Airlines implemented a policy that required flights to completely turn off chart displays before landing in Tel Aviv. ​