British-based budget airline easyJet has decided to dump the phrase “Ladies and Gentlemen” in greetings and public address announcements, telling pilots and crew members to avoid the gender-specific wording and instead say “Welcome, everyone.”
The decision was apparently made after a London professor took the airline to task back in August, according to England’s Metro News.
Dr. Andi Fugard, who works at London’s Birbeck University, complained about the airline on Twitter in August. The lecturer wrote: ‘Dear @easyjet, are you in some kind of competition to see how many times you can reinforce gender binaries?
Responding to the criticism, easyJet said in a statement: “At easyJet we do not discriminate against any individual—passengers or staff members. We are a pan-European airline with the aim of connecting people of all nationalities across Europe so there is certainly no room in our organization for discrimination of any kind.”
easyJet told Metro News that the phrase ‘ladies and gentlemen’ is not banned, but did tell the website that crews had been ‘guided away’ from saying it.
