Japan Airlines (JAL) will drop the “ladies and gentlemen” phrase in favor of more inclusive greetings such as “attention all passengers and “welcome, everyone” starting October 1 on flights and in airports worldwide.
Yutaro Iwasaki, a publicist for JAL, told CNN Travel that they “have been promoting diversity in the community since 2014, and this is one of our actions taken to treat everyone (the same) regardless of gender.”
This comes after the Tokyo-based airlines in March 2020, when it announced it would permit female flight attendants to wear trousers instead of skirts to be more comfortable on board.
The other positive step the airline has made towards gender equality is that its subsidiary, JAL Express, claims Japan’s first-ever female commercial air pilot.
Ari Fuji received her pilot’s license in the United States and then returned to her native country when she was accepted into JAL’s pilot training program. She was hired last year, shattering a tremendous glass ceiling.
The under-presentation of female pilots is not just a Japanese problem. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) estimates that only around 5% of the total pilots worldwide are female.
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Gender-inclusive language is increasingly becoming a common trend for most airlines around the world. JAL is, however, the first airline to adopt the practice in Asia.
A year ago, Air Canada announced that it would abandon the “ladies and gentlemen” greeting to the more inclusive “everybody” when addressing passengers.
Late 2019, European low-cost carrier easyJet also announced that it had “provided guidance” to its employees on how to use inclusive terminology on board after a spate of social media complaints.
