Delta’s CEO apologizes for 9/11 remarks

Delta Airlines has issued a statement apologizing on behalf of CEO Richard Anderson for his remarks earlier this week. You can hear the apology in the news clip below.

Mr. Richardson made a comment on CNN in which he appeared to suggest a link between Gulf carriers and the September 11 attacks in the United States. Since then, Mr. Anderson has been receiving a lot of heat, some even calling him “racist” and “out of touch.”

However, an apology doesn’t seem to be enough. “Emirates rejects the apology issued by Delta Air Lines in response to comments made by its CEO… which intimated a link between the Gulf carriers and the 9/11 attacks,” said a spokesperson for Emirates.

“It’s a great irony to have the UAE from the Arabian Peninsula talk about that, given the fact that our industry was really shocked by the terrorism of 9-11, which came from terrorists from the Arabian Peninsula,” said Anderson during the CNN interview.

Out of the 19 9-11 hijackers, 17 of them came from the Gulf, 15 Saudi citizens and two Emirati citizens.

Mr. Anderson made the inappropriate comment while he was trying to defend his airlines’ position on the Open Skies Treaty.