EasyJet apologizes after ad drew comparisons to Holocaust tattoos that sparked backlash

The low-cost airline posted a photo of a passenger with a flight number tattooed on his forearm and captioned the poorly received post, “You never forget your first flight.”

EasyJet has apologized after posting an advert that many misinterpreted as Holocaust adverts, which enraged thousands.

The low-cost airline uploaded a tweet on April 7 showing a flight number tattooed on a passenger’s arm. They captioned the post, “You never forget your first flight.”

The phrase “never forgotten” is often used when discussing the horrors of Nazi genocide during World War II.

Some have said that the tattoo also commemorates the serial numbers that were forcibly inked on prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.

EasyJet bosses deleted the tweet within an hour and apologized for the unintended offense.

An EasyJet representative said on Tuesday: “While this is a real image of the tattoo of a customer celebrating their first flight with us, we understand the concerns expressed and have therefore decided to remove the post.

“We apologize for any unintentionally caused crime.”

The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before a flight enthusiast saved the photo and re-shared it on the platform.

“No easyjet. Please no,” Jon Siva tweeted in response to the post, which quickly went viral.

One user replied: “WOW my mouth dropped. It’s hard to imagine how something like this would be posted by such a large brand account without at least someone along the way realizing the significance of these images.”

Another wrote: “Quickly deleted once they realized the importance of it. But it made me ask honestly how they review and moderate their content.”

A third said: “Yikes! You would have thought that at least one person who saw this before posting it would know the meaning of it.”

During the Holocaust, Jewish and some non-Jewish prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp had identification numbers tattooed on their left arms.

The tattoos were intended to scar the camp survivors for life and became a symbol of genocide. Around 6 million Jews died between 1941 and 1945 at the hands of Nazi Germany in the Holocaust.

It’s not the first time the company has apologized for a Holocaust-related slip-up.

In 2009, EasyJet’s in-flight magazine featured a photo spread of models posing against the backdrop of the famous monument in Berlin.

Nearly 300,000 copies of the magazine were withdrawn in the wake of the outrage and the airline issued an “effusive” apology for the “inappropriate” photoshoot.