India’s largest price range airline IndiGo has been trialing a reserving characteristic that may enable girls to keep away from reserving a seat subsequent to males on flights.
The characteristic, the primary of its variety for an airline, works by exhibiting feminine vacationers a pink seat on the seat choice web page if it is going to be occupied by a feminine passenger, an organization consultant informed CNBC Journey.
Male vacationers, nevertheless, won’t see this info, the corporate mentioned.
Vacationers on IndiGo should determine their genders after they buy tickets, which permits the airline to regulate entry to those particulars, in accordance with Indigo.
The service started rolling out the service in Might on a pilot foundation, and is out there on all flights, the corporate mentioned. Nonetheless, IndiGo’s web site and cell app didn’t present the characteristic when CNBC did a test.
The brand new characteristic has acquired “constructive particular person reactions” on social media, IndiGo’s CEO informed CNBC’s “Road Indicators Asia” final week.
“Expertise is now enabling some issues which weren’t in a position up to now. We introduced [the initiative] up as a take a look at … It has responded very properly with our prospects, but additionally internationally,” CEO Pieter Elbers mentioned.
Why do girls wish to keep away from sitting subsequent to males?
An IndiGo consultant informed CNBC Journey that the brand new characteristic is designed to make flying “extra comfy for our feminine passengers.”
Many customers on social media platforms X and Reddit counseled IndiGo’s new initiative, with some commenting that it’s “such excellent news” after having dangerous experiences when touring alone, and they’re “glad it’s out there,” citing private experiences of being touched on flights.
Reddit customers in favor of IndiGo’s new initiative.
CNBC
Others complained that male passengers typically sit with their legs large aside, making feminine neighbors uncomfortable.
Nonetheless, some feedback known as the reserving characteristic discriminatory and sexist. Some additionally requested how the airline would handle instances of males figuring out as girls.
IndiGo’s consultant mentioned the reserving characteristic relies on market analysis and aligns “with our #GirlPower ethos.”
However she did not immediately reply to CNBC’s questions on whether or not the service was launched due to experiences of latest in-flight incidents involving males — together with a 2023 incident the place a drunk man urinated on a feminine passenger throughout an Air India flight from New York to Delhi.
Different incidents contain male passengers who contact girls on flights. On an IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Guwahati in September 2023, a male passenger lifted the armrest between him and a feminine passenger and touched her inappropriately whereas she was asleep, in accordance with the Indian information outlet The Financial Occasions.
In 2019, a 39-year-old male Indian nationwide and Singapore everlasting resident was sentenced to 4 months in jail for harassing and inappropriately touching a 22-year-old flight attendant throughout a flight from Cochin to Singapore. The flight attendant testified the passenger smelled of alcohol and boarded the flights together with his pants unzipped, Singapore media reported.
In 2023, IndiGo turned the primary Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a calendar yr.
The world’s most populous nation is making vital strides to turbocharge its tourism sector. Indian vacationers are projected to take 5 billion leisure journeys by 2030, of which 99% are anticipated to be home, in accordance with an October report by Reserving.com and McKinsey.
