When the owner of a 3D print shop on Gloucester Road received an email with a design of the ‘worst airline of the year award’, he didn’t think much of it at first and gave them a quote to make it, like he would any other customer. But once Mark Bryant found out the purpose of the award, he told them he would do it for free and altered the design slightly so that the aeroplane was directly facing a huge lump of poo.
The 'trophy' was presented to Privilege Style, a Mallorca-based airline company that has confirmed it will no longer operate flights to Rwanda after being presented with the award. Activists from Freedom from Torture presented the firm with the Bristol-made award at the carrier’s headquarters in Palma in front of media earlier this month.
The private airline had previously been contracted by the UK government to offer charter flights to Rwanda, where asylum seekers arriving in the UK would be sent for processing. The controversial UK asylum policy has come under scrutiny from human rights charities and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), resulting in a Privilege Style chartered flight destined for Rwanda in June being grounded at short notice after a court ruling.
