KLM apologises to Tanzania over "civil unrest" travel advisory

The Dutch national carrier KLM has apologised to the government of Tanzania over an advisory warning it issued over the weekend against the East African nation.

In the travel advisory, KLM had said that the "civil unrest" between Friday and Monday could potentially force flights to be cancelled.

The advisory caused an uproar with the airline accused of spreading not only "unfounded" but also "false, insensitive and misleading information" that paints Tanzania in bad light.

"We are sorry we did not describe the reason why we had to decide not to let our crew stopover in Dar es Slaam for now correctly. The use of the phrase 'civil unrest' was wrong, for which we sincerely apologise," KLM Country Manager in Tanzania, Alexander van de Wint said.

Van de Wint added: A specific local threat has prompted us to make this decision. We cannot give further details about this security issue. We took your feedback to heart and have adjusted the message on our website."

The airline now says that it is working towards restarting its flights to Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar as soon as possible.

Initially, Kenya was also included in the KLM's travel advisory before the airline adjusted to remove the it.

Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said on Saturday, January 28 that he had protested to the airline.

“We will escalate this discussion through diplomatic channels,” he warned in a statement.