British Airways has advised pilots and cabin crew to stop referring to passengers as "ladies and gentlemen" in onboard announcements and replace them with gender-neutral terms.
Britain's flagship carrier has decided to abandon the greeting in order "to ensure that all our customers feel welcome when traveling with us" and celebrate "diversity and inclusion".
The move away from gender-specific to gender-neutral language brings the airline's announcements in line with those made in airports.
The airline's recent decision is believed to have been partly driven by a change in its customers, according to The Telegraph.
The airline is understood to be keen to respect new social norms as well as to make children feel included in the announcements, as a greater proportion of families travel since the easing of Covid restrictions.
Per The Telegraph, a BA spokesperson said: "We celebrate diversity and inclusion and we're committed to ensuring that all our customers feel welcome when traveling with us."
Last month, Air Malta announced it would also scrap phrases such as "welcome, ladies and gentleman" in favor of more inclusive language, such as: "Attention, all passengers."
Staff are now encouraged to refer to passengers as "guests" and other more universal terms in a bid to help trans, non-binary and intersex people feel comfortable, the airline said in a statement.
It also follows previous moves by Lufthansa earlier this year.
Per CNN, Lufthansa said in a statement that on future flights travelers will be referred to as "guests," or simply greeted with: "Good morning here on board."
"Diversity and equality are core values for our company and our corporate culture. From now on, we want to express this attitude in our language as well - and show that diversity is not just a phrase, but a lived reality," reads the Lufthansa statement.
Lufthansa is following in the footsteps of other airlines that have made this change in recent years - including Japanese airline JAL in 2020, and European budget carrier EasyJet and Canadian flagship airline Air Canada back in 2019.
Lufthansa said gender-neutral language has been used in company internal communication since the beginning of June 2021, and that Lufthansa is also making linguistic changes to contracts and documents going forward, CNN reports.
"We have not banned addressing our guests as 'Dear Sir or Madam' - our aim is to welcome everyone on board on an equal basis," said Lufthansa, who added that cabin crew can choose the exact wording "depending on the context and situation."
In 2018, Quantas launched its "Spirit of Inclusion" initiative whereupon staff were encouraged to refrain from using gender-specific terms.
The decision came after activists including from the LGBT charity Stonewall campaigned for the change, claiming that although "ladies and gentlemen" was "polite", it was "outdated" and "belonged to yesterday”.
