India’s largest budget carrier appears ready to make permanent a trial that allows women to pick seats beside other female passengers. IndiGo officials say they’ve had good feedback on a program that shows women passengers a different seating map than the map accessible to men. Females who book (the airline requires passengers to state their gender to book a flight) see a map that colors available seats pink if they are next to another woman. Male passengers get the regular androgynous seat map.
CNBC said a spokesman told them the gender-based booking was intended to make travel “more comfortable for our female passengers” and said the move resulted from market research that supports the airline’s “GirlPower ethos.” CEO Pieter Elbers said it seems to be doing the trick. “Technology is now enabling some things which were not able in the past. We brought [the initiative] up as a test … It has responded very well with our customers, but also internationally,” Elbers said. On social media, women have commented on the booking feature by listing a litany of complaints that they have had about male seatmates from “manspreading” to unwanted touching.
