People who do not identify exclusively with male or female, or who do not want to divulge their gender, will have the option to do so when booking airline flights starting in June.
The industry group that represents the biggest U.S.-based airlines told The Daily Beast that it “will add new gender options in order to accommodate non-binary passengers who have ‘X’ on their IDs.”
The industry association, Airlines for America (A4A), “recently approved a new international standard that will allow for ‘unspecified’ and ‘undisclosed’ as options in addition to ‘male’ or ‘female,’ ” The Daily Beast reported on Thursday. Members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which is comprised of carriers elsewhere in the world, was also involved in the decision.
Separately, Delta Airlines – which is not an A4A member – told The Daily Beast that it was “planning to offer a non-binary gender option during the booking process” as part of “ongoing efforts to accommodate the needs of diverse customers throughout our business.”
A4A members include American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, United, JetBlue and Southwest. The industry change won’t be reflected in their individual booking options unless the airlines change the online booking process, The Daily Beast noted.
The industry as a whole, however, is “committed to making these changes to their reservation processes to account for non-binary IDs while ensuring continued compliance with U.S. and foreign government requirements that passenger data match the identification used for travel,” A4A said.