Air India issues new policy for solo women travellers

New Delhi: Air India has come up with a new policy that will allow solo women travellers and mothers with young children to select alternative seats on their flights. The airline’s new directive recommends that these passengers be given the option to choose aisle or window seats according to their convenience.

“To ensure the female guests travelling with us have a comfortable flight, we as a company are adopting a gender-sensitive seat assignment practice. A circular has been released by the team with regard to the same,” an internal communication of the airline stated,

The directive also extends to children travelling alone and seated in centre seats. Further, it emphasises that the airline’s cabin crew will discreetly offer reseating options to women passengers who are travelling solo and to mothers with infants in centre seats if vacant seats are available. The aim is to relocate these passengers to seats with bassinet locations, preferably aisle or window seats.

The airline claimed that it came to their attention that solo female passengers felt uncomfortable when assigned centre seats.

The initiative is called “gender-sensitive seat assignment practice.” The relevant department of the airline has been directed to ensure that solo female travellers are not assigned the centre seat when both the aisle and window seats are occupied by male passengers.