British airline Virgin Atlantic, owned by billionaire Richard Branson, has scrapped its male and female uniform rules to allow flight crew members to “express their gender identity”. This is reported by The Sun.
Under the previous “gender uniform” rules, men had to wear burgundy pantsuits, while women had to wear classic red skirts and jackets. Since 2019, when the airline lifted its strict makeup rules, female crew members have also been allowed to wear pants.
In addition, Branson’s airline allowed staff and passengers on flights to select badges with the gender pronouns they would like to be addressed by.
In May 2022, Virgin Atlantic became the first major global airline to allow staff to display tattoos.
As it became known earlier, in August 2022, the Latvian airline airBaltic was the first among European air carriers to introduce new democratic appearance rules for aircraft crews.
In particular, aircraft crews were allowed to display piercings and tattoos. Airline employees were also given the right to choose their hairstyles during work.