{"id":1838026,"date":"2025-03-17T14:57:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T18:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1838026"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T18:57:44","slug":"the-trouble-with-inflight-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/the-trouble-with-inflight-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble with Inflight Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air Canada has apologized<\/a> after its inflight maps were found showing the Palestinian Territories but not Israel, blaming an outside supplier and disabling the feature until a fix is made. The times are such that this sort of thing can be inflammatory as hell. Thing is, it\u2019s not remotely the first time it\u2019s happened. Per CNN\u2019s reporting, it happened with JetBlue\u2019s maps last year<\/a> and with British Airways back in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s going on? None of the articles give any sort of explanation, though the Snopes page<\/a> suggests that GeoFusion<\/a> is the ultimate source of the inflight maps. My guess is that there are airlines that cannot or will not show Israel on a map: several Gulf state carriers come to mind, and GeoFusion lists several<\/a> on its website (though to be fair I have no knowledge of whether this actually applies to them). Is it possible that GeoFusion has a bespoke no-Israel version for these carriers, and every so often other airlines get that version by mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly if GeoFusion doesn\u2019t<\/em> have different versions of its maps I\u2019d be shocked, seeing as they list Air India and several Chinese carriers as their clients, and the map required by one country is illegal in the other. To say nothing of how a China-compliant map with the Nine-dash Line would land with Vietnam Airlines, or Crimea-as-Ukraine with Aeroflot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflight maps aren\u2019t an immediately obvious front line in the various map wars (disputed borders, place names, etc.) but now that I think about it . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Air Canada has apologized after its inflight maps were found showing the Palestinian Territories but not Israel, blaming an outside supplier and disabling the feature until a fix is made. The times are such that… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453,110],"tags":[1725,609,603],"class_list":["post-1838026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-aviation","category-map-errors","tag-air-canada","tag-israel","tag-palestine","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1817969,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/08\/national-library-of-israel-receives-donation-of-400-antique-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":0},"title":"National Library of Israel Receives Donation of 400+ Antique Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 August 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"More than 400 maps, previously owned by collector Howard I. Golden, have been donated to the National Library of Israel. The antique maps, dating from 1475 to 1800, were preserved in excellent physical condition by Mr. Golden who, over several decades, collected historical maps of the Land of Israel. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Terre Sanct\u00e6 (1593)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/terre-sanctae-1593-1024x647.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/terre-sanctae-1593-1024x647.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/terre-sanctae-1593-1024x647.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/terre-sanctae-1593-1024x647.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1815668,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/06\/fire-and-smoke-forecast-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":1},"title":"Fire and Smoke Forecast Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 June 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"Last week my location was blanketed by smoke from forest fires in northern Quebec, with the air quality index pegged as high as it goes (which is to say, eleven). The iPhone\u2019s default weather app has an air quality map that I made use of\u2014you could actually see the fire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787873,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/google-maps-data-and-the-google-maps-platform\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":2},"title":"Google Maps Data and the Google Maps Platform","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 October 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Maps product director Ethan Russell has a post about their map data: how (and how often) it\u2019s updated, how to submit updates, how it\u2019s managed and checked for accuracy, that sort of thing. It\u2019s one of a series of posts on the Google Maps Platform, which is (now) their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web Mapping"","block_context":{"text":"Web Mapping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/web-mapping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/google-maps-ios-icon-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5046,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/a-history-of-canada-in-ten-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":3},"title":"A History of Canada in Ten Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The odd thing about\u00a0A History of Canada in Ten Maps, the new book by Adam Shoalts out today from Allen Lane, is that it's almost entirely uncontaminated by maps. It's not just because the electronic review copy I received (via Netgalley) contained no images of the maps being referred to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/shoalts01-129x150.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":923312,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/12\/canadian-geographics-and-chris-brackleys-best-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":4},"title":"Canadian Geographic’s (and Chris Brackley’s) Best Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 December 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Canadian Geographic looks at the best maps it published in 2017. It did the same in 2016 and in 2015. The funny thing about the maps in these year's-best posts is that they're all by\u00a0CG\u2019s in-house cartographer, Chris Brackley, who the RCGS is clearly glad to have on board\u2014and based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cg-best-maps-2017-1024x640.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cg-best-maps-2017-1024x640.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cg-best-maps-2017-1024x640.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cg-best-maps-2017-1024x640.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1785982,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/inat-metro-maps-app\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838026,"position":5},"title":"INAT Metro Maps App","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 July 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"A thing I missed when it came out last year: the INAT Metro Maps app, which collects, in digital form, the 40-odd maps that Jug Cerovi\u0107 produced for his\u00a0One Metro World project. For the iPhone and iPad; costs 99\u00a2 in the U.S., $1.39 in Canada, and (I assume) something comparable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/inat-app-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838026"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838034,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838026\/revisions\/1838034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}