Air Canada scrapping ‘ladies and gentleman’ to be more gender inclusive

Flight attendants on Air Canada planes will no longer greet passengers as “ladies and gentlemen”, but will use the gender inclusive greeting of “hello, everyone”.

The plans to scrap gendered greetings are part of an effort by the airline to be more inclusive of all genders.

An Air Canada spokesperson told CTV News: “We will be amending our onboard announcements to modernise them and remove specific references to gender. We work hard to make sure all employees feel like valued members of the Air Canada family, while ensuring our customers are comfortable and respected when they choose to travel with us.”

Instead of “mesdames et messieurs” or “ladies and gentlemen”, flight attendants on Canada’s national airline will say “tout le monde” or “everybody”.

It is not clear when the gender inclusive changes will take place.

Various airlines, including United in the US, have added the gender option X to their booking process, but only for people who also have the gender marker X in their passports. Canada is one of few countries globally that allows this gender option on ID documents.

European passengers became able to choose the X gender marker when flying with Air Italy earlier this year.

The Canadian government has taken several steps in the past few years to make Canada more inclusive of all genders, including people who identify as non-binary.

In June this year, it introduced the X gender marker on passports – and, for the next year, it’s free for non-binary Canadians to update this in their passports.

This makes the X gender option available to all Canadians, although it was available in some provinces before.

As of May 2018, Canada has recognised third gender options and let people self-identify on government surveys and forms – including the next census.

And in 2017, a Canadian baby born in British Colombia had their health card marked with a gender-neutral U – the first time a baby has had a health card without a binary gender marker.