Air Canada Forced to Disable Moving Map On Boeing 737 Airplanes After Israel is Replaced With ‘Palestinian Territories’

Air Canada has been forced to disable its moving map feature on Boeing 737 airplanes after passengers noticed that the state of Israel had disappeared and was replaced with the label ‘Palestinian Territories.’

The ‘display issue’ currently only affects Air Canada’s fleet of Boeing 737MAX aircraft, of which the airline currently has around 43 in its fleet, although Air Canada has ordered a total of 61 of the popular single-aisle aircraft.

According to the Runway Girl Network, the French aerospace giant Thales provides the inflight entertainment on Air Canada’s Boeing 737MAX fleet, although airlines using this system have the option to load third-party maps from independent vendors.

Although Air Canada does not currently fly to Israel, and its Boeing 737MAX most certainly doesn’t fly anywhere in the region, passengers scrolling through the inflight map couldn’t help but notice the lack of Israel in the area where it should have appeared.

Air Canada isn’t the only airline to have suffered the same issue with Israel being replaced with the ‘Palestinian Territories,’ and in September 2024, JetBlue faced a customer relations nightmare after Jewish passengers noticed the error.

Facing accusations of possible antisemitism, JetBlue was quick to announce that it would dump its inflight map vendor and find a new inflight that featured the state of Israel.

In a statement, Air Canada explained: “Air Canada has been made aware of a display issue with the interactive map when set at certain resolutions on the IFE systems of its B737 aircraft.”

“The issue has affected other carriers using the same system and we are working with the third-party provider on a remedy,” the statement continued.

“In the interim, the map function has been temporarily inactivated on affected aircraft.”

Last month, Air Canada announced that it intended to resume non-stop flights to Israel beginning in June 2025. The airline initially plans to fly direct from Toronto to Tel Aviv from June 8 with a four times per week service before later adding a flight to Tel Aviv from Montreal in August 2025 as a one weekly service.

The airline said that it had “undertaken extensive safety and security reviews” and that it had consulted with the Canadian government as well as foreign authorities before announcing the restart of flights to Israel.

Unions representing pilots and flight attendants have also been involved in the discussions as aircrews will be expected to stay overnight in Israel during their layovers.

“Air Canada continues to closely monitor the situation in the region,” the carrier explained. “It will continue to do so leading up to and after the return of service and, for the safety and well-being of its customers and crews, may adjust its schedule should security and safety protocols require.”