IndiGo Airlines, India’s largest low-cost carrier, is set to launch a pioneering initiative allowing female passengers to choose seats away from male strangers. The feature, rolling out next month, enables women to view a special seating map during online check-in, highlighting female passengers in pink. This information will not be available to male passengers.
“IndiGo is proud to announce the introduction of a new feature that aims to make the travel experience more comfortable for our female passengers. This has been introduced [on the] basis [of] market research and is currently in pilot mode aligning with our #GirlPower ethos,” IndiGo told the Daily Mirror.
Reactions to the initiative have been mixed, with some praising the move and others questioning its fairness and potential for reverse discrimination. While some argue that men should also have the option to choose their seatmates, others see it as a positive step towards addressing making female passengers feel more comfortable.
The burning question is, of course: Should El Al institute a similar policy, allowing for men to choose seats not next to women?
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
9 Responses
Wow! The Indian airline is doing this because of women being harassed or worse by males. On El Al the men don’t want to sit next to women because of tznius & kedusha.
מי כעמך ישראל
Most women on El Al would likely prefer sitting next to another woman rather than some guy, whether or not he is Chareidi. For the airlines, its generally a matter of non-discrimination law, logistics, and potential for disruptions in boarding. There aren’t many cases of Chareidim molesting women passengers so there is no justification compared to a country like India where these kinds of instances of unwanted touching or molestation are sadly too frequent.
The problem El AL faces is the leftist regulations of both the U.S. and Israel. They’re stuck: really stuck!
Offering men the option to sit away from women is sexist. Offering women the option to sit away from men is fine. The men’s section at shul is sexist. The women’s section at shul is fine. The all men’s gyms are sexist. The all women’s gyms are fine. Seeing a pattern here anyone? lol
gjboy: If guys would check their yetzer horah at the boarding gate and not feel they have an “entitlement to grab women by…” as a certain high level political candidate once proclaimed on national TV, perhaps certain countries wouldn’t feel the need to have a varbeshe section on their flights. Google “woman arrested for molesting man on flight”. Uber is also offering guaranteed women drivers in certain location because of the growing number of assaults (very few of which I recall involved a woman attacking a guy). Yes, I’m sure there a few Yiddeshe “Karens” verbally attacking some innocent guy because he might look “threatening” to her but that is a totally different issue than physical molestation which the airlines and rail companies are dealing with.
i think el al shd offer a separate seating cabin where you forfeit your rights to sit in any specific seat but are guaranteed a seat next to the same gender… its cost efficient, its PC …
I don’t understand the grandstanding in these comments. IndiGo provides gender separation for exactly the same as reason as our tznius guidelines — to avoid temptation for inappropriate behavior.
Gadolhadorah: From a purely moral perspective, whether you are a woman or a man, you should be able to request same sex seating. Offering this option to just one sex is called sexist and it is wrong.
Gadolhatora, you seem to be perfectly fine for ladies to choose not to seat with men for moral reasons, but heaven forfend the thought that it should also be available for religious reasons!
Such a twisted sad mind.