Air Canada Drops 'Ladies and Gentlemen' For Gender Neutral Greetings

(CBS Local) -- Flight attendants at Air Canada will no longer greet passengers as "ladies and gentlemen" or "mesdames et messieurs" as they switch "to remove specific references to gender," according to an internal memo sent to staff.

Flight staff at the company, including pilots, flight attendants and gate agents, will be replacing scripted greetings with neutral words like "everybody" or "tout le monde," the French-language Canadian news outlet La Presse reported.

"We will be amending our onboard announcements to modernize them and remove specific references to gender," a spokesperson for the company wrote in an email to CTV News.

"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," the email continued.

The move follows new Canadian government regulations that allow citizens to identify as gender-neutral using "Gender X" on official identification documents.

Air Canada has not yet announced when the new gender-neutral greetings will be implemented.

Earlier this year, Airlines for America, the trade group that represents major U.S. airlines -- including American, Alaska, United, Southwest, and JetBlue -- announced that its members would add an "X" option for non-binary passengers on their boarding bases, effective June 1, 2019.