Delta apologizes for posts criticizing attendants’ Palestinian flag pins, will ban all but U.S. pins

Delta Air Lines apologized Thursday after an employee used the company’s social media account to say they would be “terrified” if they saw a Delta flight attendant wearing a Palestinian flag pin.

The company also announced that, starting Monday, the only flag pin that flight attendants will be able to wear is that of the United States.

“Delta removed a mistakenly posted comment on X Wednesday because it was not in line with our values and our mission to connect the world,” Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant said in an emailed statement.

The employee who made the comments will no longer handle the airline’s social media pages, Durrant added.

“The team member responsible for the post has been counseled and no longer supports Delta’s social channels,” he said. “We apologize for this error.”

The now-deleted comments were in response to a Wednesday post on X by user @iliketeslas. It included two photos showing flight attendants wearing Palestinian flag pins as they served passengers. The post equated the Palestinian flag pin to a “Hamas badge,” Hamas being the militant group that governs Gaza and has been designated a terrorist organization.

Screenshots show Delta replied in a comment the next day: “I hear you and I’d be terrified as well, personally. Our employees reflect our culture and we do not take it lightly when our policy is not being followed.”

Another social media comment by Delta said the company would investigate the pins being worn. “Nothing to worry [about], this is being investigated already, particularly the involved parties,” it read.

The comments later disappeared from Delta’s account. Airline officials declined to specify where the pictures were taken, but Durrant said they were taken on separate flights on different days. The two employees who wore the pins are still employed, the spokesperson said.

Until now, Delta has allowed employees to wear uniform pins representing other countries and nationalities. The new policy starting Monday to prohibit the wearing of flag pins for countries other than the U.S., according to Durrant, “help[s] ensure a safe, comfortable and welcoming environment for all.”

The comments deleted on X have led many to condemn Delta online, with some calling the comments anti-Palestinian and proposing a boycott of the airline.

In a letter Thursday to Delta CEO Ed Bastian, the steering committee for a group of flight attendants that’s been leading an effort to unionize harshly criticized the company for the deleted comments.

“The [committee] underscores that these incidents reflect a repeated failure by Delta management to stand up for flight attendants,” the letter said.

The letter went on to describe the deleted posts as “bigoted and inflammatory,” and said they “represent our airline to the world,” whether or not airline officials approved of them. The group demanded a public apology from Delta, better moderating of its social media, and a ban on non-consensual photographs of crew members.

Before the airline responded, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Delta to apologize for the deleted comments.

“Whether this racist post on Delta’s X account was approved or unauthorized, Delta must apologize and take steps to educate its employees about this type of dangerous anti-Palestinian racism,” CAIR said in a news release. Delta posted its public apology for the deleted posts Thursday afternoon on X, which CAIR later said it welcomed.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the group of flight attendants that released a letter to Delta’s CEO is not a union, but a group that has been leading an effort to unionize.