IndiGo introduces new feature where women can choose not to sit next to men

India’s biggest budget carrier, IndiGo, has been conducting trials of a new option in the reservation system that would allow women to not be seated next to men on planes. This unique innovation, known as IndiGo introduces new feature, lights up the seats selected for women in pink during the option selection process. Women can select these seats if they wish to be accompanied by another woman. IndiGo has already tested this initiative, and an official from the carrier revealed further information on the outcome of the pilot to CNBC Travel.

IndiGo said that such information would be inaccessible to male travellers. When the passengers will be booking their tickets, they’ll be asked for their gender, through which the airline can control who gets to view these seat details. The airline has started using the feature in some select segments in May and then has made it available in all its flights. However, during a CNBC review done recently, the section was not found in the IndiGo site or the application.

CEO Insights: How IndiGo Introduces New Feature and Its Reception

IndiGo’s CEO mentioned in an interview with CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” last week that the new feature has garnered “positive individual reactions” on social media. CEO Pieter Elbers said, “Technology is now enabling some things that were not possible in the past. We brought [the initiative] up as a test… It has responded very well with our customers, but also internationally.”

An IndiGo representative informed CNBC Travel that the new feature aims to enhance and make the journey “more comfortable for our female passengers.” The initiative has received praise on social media platforms like X and Reddit, where many users expressed their approval. Some women shared that they “were glad it is available,” noting that it is “such good news” after encountering uncomfortable situations when traveling alone, including unwanted physical contact during flights.

Many users cited that male travelers tend to cross their legs or place them on the aisle, which is uncomfortable for female passengers sitting close. However, the feature provoked controversy also—some people called it discriminatory and sexist. People wondered how the airline would deal with cases of male passerbys or those men who pursue women. IndiGo’s representative justified the feature, explaining that it has been developed based on market data and in line with its strategy that “we are dedicated at IndiGo with our #GirlPower ethos.”

The representative failed to answer CNBC’s question of whether the new service was as a result of recent in-flight incidents involving men. Some of the examples are an incident in 2023 involving an Air India flight from New York to Delhi where a drunken man wet a lady passenger. Other occurrences relate to instances whereby male passengers sexually harass females during flights by either rubbing their bodies against them or otherwise touching them in a sexual manner. For instance, on an IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Guwahati in September 2023, a male passenger, with the permission of the female passenger he wanted to abuse, lifted the armrest and touched this woman’s private parts while she was sleeping, The Economic Times informed.

In September 2019, a 39-year-old India man and a permanent resident in Singapore was jailed for humiliating and sexually abusing a 22-year-old female flight attendant during the flight from Cochin to the defendant’s homeland, Singapore. From what was aired in Singaporean media, the flight attendant stated that the passenger who had the look of an inebriate boarded the aircraft with his trousers unfastened.

IndiGo is currently the third largest airline in the world in terms of market value, with daily operation exceeding 2000 domestic and international flights. In 2023, the airline yet again achieved a record by becoming the first airline in India to complete operations, transporting over 100 million passengers in a single calendar year. Being one of the biggest countries in the world, India is putting in a lot of effort to promote and develop its tourism industry. India today, and McKinsey & Company has predicted that the travellers from India are going to take about five billion leisure trips by the year 2030, while out of the five billion leisure trips, 9% are going to be international leisure trips only.

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