Air New Zealand is in the soup for a staff training manual that warned that many Tongan passengers would attempt to guzzle all of a plane’s booze.
A 2008 crew manual produced by the airline said people from the Pacific island nation were “softly spoken, reserved people” but many “would try to drink the bar dry.”
Alan Gaskin, general manager for Air New Zealand in-flight service, apologized for the manual, but said it was no longer being used for cabin crew training.
“It was not intended to cause offence and we apologize if it has,” he told the New Zealand Herald on Sunday.
New Zealand legislator Carmel Sepuloni, who is of part Tongan descent, said Monday the comments in the manual were completely unacceptable but she accepted the apology.(AFP)
紐西蘭航空公司因在員工訓練手冊中提及許多東加旅客會企圖喝光班機上存酒，而陷入尷尬處境。
紐航二００八年員工手冊上寫著：太平洋東加島國的旅客雖然「說話輕聲細語、個性內向矜持」，但許多人會「企圖喝乾機上的酒吧」。
紐航機上服務部門總經理亞蘭•蓋斯金為該手冊內容出面道歉，強調已不再用它來訓練員工。
他上週日向《紐西蘭先鋒報》表示：「我們無意冒犯，如果有，我們深感抱歉。」
東加裔的紐西蘭議員卡蜜兒•塞普魯尼上週一表示，手冊的說法令人完全無法接受，但她接受紐航的道歉。
（法新社╱翻譯：林倩如）
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