I wouldn’t worry about ‘The Company’. He/She is just another stirring peanut like ‘aircraft’ showing their ignorance and lack of character.
Sorry about your friend. It's not the first and won’t be the last time airline recruiters make silly mistakes and not have any idea about how their actions may affect applicants’ lives.
This is what happens when graduates with little life experience work and run the HR departments of larger companies whose aim is purely cost cutting for immediate gains.