A major airline is giving women the option of not sitting next to men, a world first.
Starting in August, Indian budget airline IndiGo will allow female passengers to check the gender of the person sitting next to them online.
This will allow women to reserve seats next to other women if they do not wish to sit next to men.
Men will not be shown the gender of passengers when booking their seats.
IndiGo is a codeshare partner of Qantas and the airline is used by Australians when travelling to India and within the country.
The novel idea came from an IndiGo survey that asked female passengers what would make the journey more comfortable for them.
In India, it is not uncommon to segregate the sexes on transport, and local trains have exclusive carriages for women.
In 2018, Qantas told staff to use “gender-appropriate” terms and avoid saying “husband and wife” because it could offend the LGBTQA community.
Indian low-cost airline IndiGo will offer female passengers who book online the chance to choose seats next to other female passengers
The new seating strategy emerged from a survey IndiGo conducted asking female travellers what makes them most comfortable while flying.
The airline also asked its employees to stop using words like “honey, darling and love” because they have the power to offend.
Lesley Grant, Group Executive for People and Culture, sent an information pack to staff.
“Consistent use of the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ may reinforce the idea that people are always in heterosexual relationships,” the information packet reads.
‘Similarly, always referring to ‘mom and dad’ can make many families feel excluded, both same-sex couples and single parents.’
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said political correctness had “overstepped its bounds”.
“I’ve been on hundreds of Qantas flights over many, many years. Qantas staff are very good people,” he said at the time.
“They are decent, sensible people, they have to deal with almost every kind of person possible and they don’t need this kind of nonsense, they really don’t.”
IndiGo is one of India’s largest airlines with over 2,000 daily domestic and international flights.
