German airline group Lufthansa will greet fliers using gender-neutral greetings from now on. The airlines group which includes Lufthansa, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines have dropped the gendered phrases. Airlines have historically welcomed travellers on board by referring to them as ‘ladies and gentlemen.’ In a statement, Lufthansa said that on future flights travellers will be referred to as ‘guests,’ or simply greeted with a cheerful – ‘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 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. "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."
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.
A move towards gender-neutral language is a positive step for the historically male-dominated aviation industry -- In June 2021, as reported by the Washington Post, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) committee report on the drone industry recommended that aviation terminology such as "airman" and "unmanned" should be changed to a more gender-neutral alternative, such as "aviator" and "uncrewed" and that this change should be adopted by the industry more widely.