Indian airline is giving women the choice to be seated next to other women on flights

Traveling alone as a woman can be intimidating, especially when it comes to safety. Indigo Airline aims to enhance safety for women by allowing them to select seats near other women while booking.

In a move intended to focus on the safety and comfort of female passengers, Indigo Airline has introduced a new seating policy on its international flights. The policy allows for women traveling alone or with family the option of seeing where other women are sitting during the booking process so they can choose to pick seats near other women.

This initiative comes in response to growing concerns about safety for female travelers, particularly on long-haul flights. The airline's decision is likely to be met with approval by women who travel solo or with small children often. This seating option may be something airlines can implement when booking tickets for unaccompanied minors as well.

There have been recent reports of sexual assaults on airplanes, including an instance where someone attempted to film a minor while they used the airplane restroom. These instances of sexual assault and harrassment of passengers on airlines generally happen to women and girls. If it occurs on flights within the US, the FBI has jurisdiction and recently reported that it opened 96 new cases of sexual assault on an airplane in 2023.

According to the FBI, men are usually the perpetrators of sexual crimes against women and children on flights and occur on “long-haul flights when the cabin is dark” and the victim is asleep. During the summer months, a rise in reports is expected as more people will be flying. But thanks to Indigo, people using their airline can do their best to mitigate the risks that they can by utilizing the new system.

Typically when booking an airline ticket the person purchasing the tickets only sees different colored squares that represent seats. You can’t see the names, ages or gender identity of the people in the seats that have already been purchased, but Indigo’s new system would change that. Well, just the gender piece, but that small change could make a huge difference to women booking tickets.

"The feature offers visibility of seats booked by female passengers only during web check-in. It is specifically tailored to PNRs with women travelers — solo as well as part of family bookings… [this is] currently in pilot mode aligning with our 'girl power' ethos" Indigo says according to Times of India.

The new booking option will be offered to women at no extra cost making it accessible to all women using the budget-friendly airline. Though the program is in the pilot stage, if it works out well, this could be a booking option other airlines may want to duplicate in order to help their passengers feel safe.

In an ideal world, a service like this wouldn’t be needed but for now, it’s nice to see an airline taking steps to do what they can to ensure their passengers’ comfort and safety.

Editor's Note: The article was originally published in July 2024.