NAACP lifts travel warning against American Airlines

The NAACP on Tuesday lifted its nine-month travel advisory against American Airlines, after determining that the company has made 'substantial” progress in addressing concerns of mistreatment of black passengers.

Since the civil rights organization issued its warning to blacks last October after receiving complaints of discrimination, American Airlines has begun implementing a series of changes to examine and alter how it trains employees and treats customers, the company said.

Among the steps the airline said it has taken: launching a companywide training on implicit bias, conducting an independent analysis of where the company falls short on diversity and inclusion measures, overhauling how it investigates customer complaints of discrimination, and making it easier for its own employees to report concerns.

Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive of the NAACP, said the organization has engaged in a 'very candid, open and ongoing dialogue” with American Airlines about the 'realities for American-Americans” who travel on American and other airlines.

The NAACP had issued its unusual warning after several incidents involving American Airlines. Those include a black man who said he was forced to give up his seat on a flight from the District of Columbia to Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina after he responded to discriminatory comments hurled at him from two white passengers, and a black woman who said she was removed from a Miami-to-New York flight after she complained to a gate agent about having her seat changed without her consent.