Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) forced a Kuwaiti company to issue a formal apology in three Kuwaiti newspapers after the company, which specializes in Internet services, falsely announced that Saudia organizes flights from Riyadh to Tel Aviv.
The Kuwaiti company said in the apology statement, which was published in Al-Qabas, Al-Watan and Al-Rai, that it officially apologizes for the false news posted on its website, which was then copied to the social networking site Twitter.
The company said it acknowledges publishing the false news, which was “contrary to the truth,” by claiming that Saudia organizes flights between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
Mansour Al-Bader, media and public relations director at Saudia, said the management at the Saudi carrier noticed that a tourism and travel office in Kuwait recently published a news item on its website confirming reservations on Saudia flights from Riyadh to Tel Aviv.
“We immediately contacted the office ... and we requested correcting the false information. We did not receive any response in this regard,” said the spokesman.
He added: “Saudia management directed the legal affairs department to follow up on the case, which, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the company in Kuwait.”
The owner of the company then contacted Saudia and expressed deep apologies, and sent a formal letter of apology, and offered to do whatever it takes in exchange for dropping the lawsuit against his company.
Al-Bader said that Saudia demanded publishing an official apology, an official apology statement by the company in three major newspapers in Kuwait, in the size of quarter page on the front page of each paper.
The owner of the company responded to this request and published the official apology statement to end the lawsuit amicably.

Source: Arab News