At the beginning of this year, it was announced that Korean Air would be launching the first nonstop flights from Northeast Asia to East Africa: specifically, from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, to Nairobi, Kenya. Derogatory seems a modest way to describe some of the advertising used for the new route.

The promotion in question, read:

Korean Air will launch 3 non-stop flight services per week from Incheon Korea to Nairobi, Kenya on June 21. Korean Air will become the first air carrier in Northeast Asia to extend flight services to Nairobi. Fly to Korean Air and enjoy the grand African Savanna, the safari tour, and the indigenous people full of primitive energy.

Kenyans were earlier expressing their disgust on social networks like Twitter. @wairimugk, was cynical:

Thinking of lion hunting today and maybe some elephant baiting to deal with my #primitiveenergy

@KalimaniThaMc, tweeted:

Maybe when these Koreans arrive we should have two gorillas at the run-way for them! That’s some good primitive energy!

Kenyans on Twitter, also known by the hashtag, #KOT, were understandably furious with the promotion, which they termed “offensive.”

@coldtusker tweeted:

@KoreanAir_KE just called us primitive people? I await an apology.

The promotion has since been removed, and we’re quite sure someone lost their job.

Korean Air tweeted an apology earlier:

The first flight from Incheon International will leave this coming Saturday night. Emirates and Ethihad offer the only other flights from Korea to Nairobi, via layovers in Dubai and Bangkok.

[Sources: CapitalFM, Wouter van Cleef]