Whether it’s someone taking off their shoes right after boarding a plane or eat a rotten sandwich At mealtimes, we all sometimes wish we had the option to choose our seat mates when flying. One airline is finally giving some passengers that option, albeit for reasons other than the olfactory examples listed above.
IndiGo, an India-based low-cost airline, recently announced a new policy that allows female passengers to choose whether or not to sit next to a man. According to IndiGo’s new policy, women will be able to see the gender of the passenger who has chosen their seat during check-in through a blue or pink marker on the seat map. Men, on the other hand, will not be given this information.
The new policy started as a test for IndiGo’s female travelers, according to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers. “We introduced this policy as a test for our female travelers to check in and see where they could sit next to another female traveler,” he said in a recent interview with CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia”.
With sexual assaults on planes on the rise, it’s no surprise that airlines are looking for ways to help women feel safer and more comfortable while flying.
In April, the FBI released a newsletter to raise awareness about the topic of sexual assault on airplanes in the United States “Typically, men are the perpetrators, and women and unaccompanied minors are the victims,” the report states. In 2023 alone, the FBI opened 96 cases involving sexual assault on airplanes, up from 27 cases of sexual assault on airplanes in 2018.
Statistics on sexual assault in India also paint a grim picture. Police in India recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, up 20% from 2021, according to a March article in Press Links.
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Other forms of transport in India have policies in place to protect women from these incidents; for example, some long-distance and commuter trains in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata have women-only carriages. Some cities have even gone so far as to provide trains and stations staffed only by women.
While it’s clear that something needs to be done to address this growing problem, the announcement has received mixed reactions online.
Official commentators Indian Subreddit People responded to the announcement with varying degrees of excitement. Some were happy about the choice but disappointed that it had come to this. “Women should be and feel safe regardless of who they are sitting next to,” said one.
Another commenter, while understanding the need for such a policy, felt it did not address the root problem. “I wish we could address this at the root and teach boys and girls to truly respect each other,” they said.
IndiGo is still calculating whether it has attracted more female travelers since announcing the change, but Elbers said the response from female passengers has been overwhelmingly positive. “We have had very positive in-person reactions from passengers and people on social media giving feedback on the initiative,” he told Street Signs Asia.
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