Edelweiss airline, which connects Zurich with dozens of holiday destinations around the world, is being criticised for urging travellers to escape Switzerland’s heatwave on one of its planes.
A subsidiary of the national carrier SWISS, Edelweiss flies to over 100 destinations in more than 30 countries – some of them likely not suffering from the same level of extreme heat as Switzerland.
Be it as it may, the airline decided to take advantage of the oppressively high temperatures by offering this (decidedly not selfless) piece of advice on its Instagram account: “What you can do about the heatwave: book a flight!”
It pasted this comment under a weather report forecasting another heatwave as of July 29th.
Screenshot Instagram
‘Completely inappropriate’
Though in and by itself, this message may sound innocuous, the post incited a number of angry comments from social media users.
“Is this supposed to be funny?” a LinkedIn user asked, while another remarked that such an advertising campaign in the midst of a record-breaking hot spell is “completely inappropriate.”
“The least I can say about it is that it is very insensitive,” another poster said.
Why so much criticism?
As several commentators have pointed out, the fact that an airline is using the heatwave to advertise its flights, is “totally wrong.”
That’s because air traffic contributes significantly to global warming, which, in turn, results in more frequent and extreme heatwaves – kind of a vicious circle.
In fact, according to the Swiss government, fuel emissions from airplanes account for between 2 and 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. And if we take into account all the climate impacts of aviation, this number rises to between 5 and 7 percent – a figure that will continue to increase with time.
‘Not well thought-out’
The criticism over the heatwave post has not left the airline cold.
It acknowledged that the post was “not particularly well thought-out” and has been deleted from its Instagram account.
“We apologise if this comment sent the wrong message,” Edelweiss spokesperson Andreas Marti said – especially as it “may have given some people the wrong impression.”
“Our aim was never to downplay the current heatwave situation or the debate surrounding climate change, he added. “If our post was interpreted in this way, we regret it.”
