Jet2 has defended its decision to prevent a hen night group from travelling on a fight to Majorca because they were wearing t-shirts deemed to be offensive.
The airline removed the 18-strong group of women aged between 18 and 60 from the East Midlands flight after some of them refused to cover up the t-shirts despite repeated warnings.
A Jet2 spokesman said: “At check-in for our East Midlands to Majorca flight, a group of passengers were reminded of our Onboard Together policy and told that they would not be permitted to fly with us whilst wearing T-shirts which displayed offensive language.
“The group were asked to either wear different attire or cover up the offensive language, and were reminded of this on numerous occasions, including by the airport police whilst in the departures area.
“Once in the cabin, and in the presence of families and young children, several members of the group decided to ignore these repeated warnings, at which point our crew took the decision to remove them from the flight.
“We apologise to all other customers for the delay and inconvenience that this caused at the start of their holiday.
“However, as a family friendly airline that carries millions of holidaymakers, including families with young children, we will not allow people on board if they are using or displaying offensive language, or if they fail to comply with the instructions of our crew.”
Bride Emma Green said the stance by Jet2 had ruined her hen weekend after the group were forced to fly in from different airports.
She told The Sun: “We are just gutted that it came to this when there was no need. Nobody even spoke to me about the T-shirts. The first I knew we were being kicked off the flight.
“We are all professional women mainly in our late 30s and 40s. I work with mental health patients and I am not a trouble-maker. We did not deserve to be treated like we did and would have covered up on the plane if we were all asked to do so.
“But the word b***h is a pretty mild curse as far as they go anyway. I hardly think the T-shirts were that offensive in the first place.”