The Australian budget airline, which once had a joint venture in Vietnam, mocked the Vietnamese currency in a post on its Facebook page: "Sorry, but Vietnamese currency is called dong, which sounds funny." ("Dong" in English slang has a vulgar connotation).
Not only that, in the comments section, the company wrote: "One million dong is 65 dollars and basically I have 65 dollars which means I am a millionaire."
The post has been taken down but has left behind a wave of outrage calling for a boycott of the Australian budget airline.
After a backlash from 782,000 followers, the post was taken down, according to the Daily Mail . However, in many previous posts, many Vietnamese and Australians continuously commented on criticizing the company.
"I will never choose Jetstar until they make an official apology to the Vietnamese people," one netizen declared.
"Stupid joke. Again - racial hatred is illegal in Australia. Don't think deleting the post will make it okay," another added.
One commenter condemned the joke as "unprofessional, disrespectful and unacceptable. There needs to be some understanding of cultural respect and sensitivity before making culturally disrespectful jokes on an airline site like this."
Huy Bui, owner of language education company PTE Master, said he will no longer fly the low-cost airline.
"I have flown with Jetstar 30-40 times in the last five years, but I am boycotting the airline until there is a formal apology. If you can't tell the difference between a joke being funny and a joke being stupid, then you are not fit to run an airline," he said.
Jetstar also responded to angry comments on its page. "We agree that the post was inappropriate and the result has been removed. We sincerely apologise for any offence caused," a Jetstar spokesperson wrote.
In 2020, Jetstar Group (Australia) and Vietnam Airlines reached an official agreement to hand over the airline's capital contribution at Jetstar Pacific Airlines to major shareholder Vietnam Airlines to officially withdraw from the Vietnamese market.
Source link
Comment (0)