Chinese airline faces legal battle over HIV discrimination claims
Two passengers with HIV are taking legal action against a Chinese budget airline for refusing to let them board a flight.
They are accusing the airline of discriminatory service and are demanding an open apology and compensation of 48,999 yuan (£4,775).
A local court in Shenyang, northeastern China’s Liaoning Province, has accepted the case, which HIV rights activists claim will be a landmark case for anti-discrimination.
The plaintiffs said they told airline staff they were HIV-positive as they were collecting their boarding passes but when they got in line to board the plane they were told their tickets had been cancelled.
One of the plaintiffs claimed he had read Spring Airlines regulations stating that HIV-positive passengers should not be transported.
The regulation was deleted from the Spring Airlines website on August 5, said the Global Times.
Spring Airlines president Wang Zhenghua told the AFP news agency that the company did not discriminate against HIV carriers and said the incident had occurred because airport staff felt nervous.
This is the first time a case has been brought against an airline for discriminating against an HIV-positive person in China.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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