Have you ever drifted off on a plane, woken up a little later, and found yourself wondering where exactly you are – only to check your seatback television screen and decide that you are none the wiser?

Airline route maps – particularly the electronic ones which are part of passengers’ in-flight entertainment systems – can often appear to show a world of their own creation. They pick out cities you have never heard of, towns where aircraft rarely land and destinations which you would not seek out – even if you were travelling on the ground.

But a bigger question might be – what do these maps fail to show? And why are certain places omitted?

Sometimes, destinations drop out of focus for simple reasons of logistics. Back in 2009, there was a brief and polite furore in New Zealand after three cities – Hamilton on the North Island; Dunedin and Queenstown on the South Island – were left off Air New Zealand’s route maps, even though the airline flew to all three.

Dunedin, New Zealand Credit: © Lubos Paukeje / Alamy Stock Photo/Lubos Paukeje / Alamy Stock Photo

A spokesman quickly blamed “space restriction”, and pointed out that two Australian cities – Cairns and Coolangatta – were also missing for the same reason.

But what of omissions with more thorny causes?

Two academics at the University of Minnesota have just produced a research paper which analyses how many airlines choose to remove Israel from their route maps.

Produced by Joel Waldfogel and Paul Vaaler, “Discriminatory Product Differentiation: The Case of Israel’s Omission from Airline Route Maps” has crunched data on 111 airlines, and raises a concerned eyebrow at carriers whose maps depict the Middle East without mention of Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Haifa, or the country which frames them.

“While product differentiation is generally benign,” the report states, “it can be employed to discriminate against customer groups, either to enhance profitability by appealing to discriminatory customers, or in unprofitable ways that indulge owners’ tastes for discrimination.”

It is no great revelation to say that the existence of Israel has been one of the causes of tension and disagreement in the Middle East since the modern state was declared in 1948. But do airlines actively discriminate against Israel by refusing to include it on their maps?

The report identifies a number of Middle Eastern airlines which fail to show Israel on their flight maps. These include the Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad, Saudi Arabia’s national airline Saudia, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways and EgyptAir.

The online route map of Qatar Airways

The latter’s omission is particularly curious. EgyptAir flies between Cairo and Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv – although this may be explained because it does so using a subsidiary, Air Sinai.

The Kuwait Airways route map

Is this evidence of active discrimination on the part of companies whose countries do not best appreciate Israel’s presence in the region, or by airlines who think some of their customers do not wish to see Israel’s place on the map acknowledged?

Etihad has explained its position by saying that its map only shows countries to which it, or one of its codeshare partners, flies (it does not land in Israel).

Of course, it is not only airlines based in the Middle East which have been caught up in this issue. In August 2015, Air France was forced to apologise after passengers noticed that Israel was missing from its in-flight map.

Israel was once removed from Air France's map Credit: ©vvvita - stock.adobe.com/Victoria Vitkovska

The carrier said that it “deeply regretted” the omission, which it said was “due to a map scale and display problem, which is currently being resolved.”

Waldfogel and Vaaler’s report argues the practice is discriminatory.

“Many international airlines are majority state-owned,” it says. “We can reasonably infer that majority state-owned international airlines located in countries not recognizing Israel have owners with a taste for discrimination against Israel.”

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates do not recognise Israel.

The United Arab Emirates does not recognise Israel

However, the report also says that the practice is not universal across the Middle East.

“International airlines based in countries with majority-Islamic populations do not necessarily deny Israel’s existence on online route maps,” it continues.

“Royal Jordanian Airlines and Turkish Airlines both fly to Tel Aviv and depict this destination city (but not its country) on online route maps. Royal Jordanian Airlines is part of the OneWorld alliance, while Turkish Airways is part of the Star alliance.”