Considered one of India’s largest airways just lately launched a brand new program that permits feminine vacationers to see the place different ladies are seated once they choose their seats on-line.
IndiGo Airways, a finances service that operates greater than 2,000 home and worldwide flights per day, is operating this system on a pilot foundation, which might be obtainable solely to ladies who’re touring solo or with youngsters.
“IndiGo is proud to announce the introduction of a brand new characteristic that goals to make the journey expertise extra comfy for our feminine passengers,” IndiGo stated in a press release.
Male passengers will nonetheless have the ability to select their seats however gained’t have the choice to see the gender of their neighbors when making their choice.
Whereas it’s the first time one thing like this has been examined within the air, it’s not a very novel idea for transportation. In locations like Japan and the United Arab Emirates, there are women-only automobiles on metro strains or reserved seats in entrance of buses.
Melissa Byron, founding father of A Solo Girl Touring, a small-group journey operator specializing in all-female luxurious journey, argues that one cause ladies want being seated subsequent to a different lady is a shared sense of camaraderie.
“Many ladies really feel extra relaxed subsequent to a different lady on account of shared experiences and a mutual understanding of non-public house and safety issues,” Byron says. “This might considerably alleviate the stress related to journey.”
Whereas the service didn’t share extra details about why the characteristic was launched, there was an uptick in sexual assaults on airplanes worldwide lately. For example, in 2022, a girl and her teenage daughter stated they’d been repeatedly groped by an intoxicated man on a flight from New York to Athens. In 2023, one other man sexually abused a girl on a flight from Phoenix to Seattle. And simply this month, a flight from Edinburgh to Ibiza was pressured to show round so police might take away a male passenger following an alleged sexual assault.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a press release in April saying the company had opened 96 circumstances primarily based on in-flight sexual assault in america alone in 2023, up from 27 in 2018.
And people are simply the circumstances which can be reported.
The FBI famous that offenders usually “make the most of the truth that some victims may not report an incident as a result of they’re embarrassed, don’t wish to trigger a scene, or could attempt to persuade themselves the assault was unintentional,” underscoring why you will need to report points to flight attendants.
Based on the FBI, “Sexual assault aboard plane—which normally takes the type of undesirable touching—is a felony that may land offenders in jail. Usually, males are the perpetrators, and girls and unaccompanied minors are the victims.”
The company added that the assaults are likely to happen on long-haul flights when the cabin is darkish, and the victims are normally within the center or window seats and coated by a blanket or jacket.
“We’ve all seen numerous current headlines about rowdy airplane passengers making others really feel uncomfortable,” Jen Tenzer, founding father of The Soloist, a luxurious solo journey company, tells Afar. “Whereas IndiGo’s pilot program might not be utilized by all passengers, I admire any effort to offer feminine vacationers with some added security and peace of thoughts.”
