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Pilot Union Wants To Get Rid Of Term “Cockpit” Due To It Being Too Masculine


The largest pilot union in the world has suggested that the airline industry stop using the term “cockpit” because it is non-inclusive.

Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, which represents over 70,000 pilots worldwide, has released its DEI language guide, which aims to eliminate numerous terms the union believes are “masculine generalizations.”

The guide reads, “Inclusive language in communications is essential to our union’s solidarity and collective strength and is an important factor in maintaining flight safety.”

The guide from the ALPA suggests the term “cockpit” should be replaced with “flight deck.”

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The world’s largest airline pilot union suggested airmen and women stop using terms purportedly offensive to women and LGBTQ individuals, calling out terms like “cockpit” as non-inclusive.

Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, represents over 70,000 pilots worldwide and states that it collaborates with a United Nations agency on its policies. According to a diversity, equity and inclusion language guide released in 2021, the ALPA lists numerous terms and phrases to avoid — especially “masculine generalizations” — that it deemed to be non-inclusive.
“Inclusive language in communications is essential to our union’s solidarity and collective strength and is an important factor in maintaining flight safety,” the guide states. “The purpose of this language guide is to offer examples of terms and phrases that promote inclusion and equity.”

ALPA, for example, suggested replacing the word “cockpit” with “flight deck.” The purportedly offensive term “has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession,” the guide states.



 

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