Female solo travelers make up a wide margin of the traveling public but when it comes to flying from one place to another, they may not be getting the respect they deserve – from their male seat mates. The headlines read something like this: “Sleeping Women Wakes Up to Passenger Groping Her on a Flight to London or Athens.” But the incidents of groping and misbehavior from adult male passengers are all too common and rarely get reported.
To that end Air India offers female solo travelers a female-only row for its seating choices, at least on its domestic flights. The move came in response to an ongoing battery of groping incidents that were being reports. “We will be reserving the third row — six seats — in the economy class of the aircraft for female passengers travelling alone,” Meenakshi Malik, Air India’s revenue management chief, told The Hindu newspaper of India as reported in USA Today. “We feel, as national carriers, it is our responsibility to enhance comfort level to female passengers. There are a lot of female passengers who travel alone with us and we will be blocking a few seats for them.”
The women-only seats for female solo travelers do not come at an add cost and can be requested up to an hour before check-in.
In a more recent move, the carrier starts offering “gender-sensitive” seating as well to female solo travelers so they will not have to sit in a middle seat – especially between two adult males. On average, 10 percent of the passenger load on an Air India flight will be solo women. The move is to make women flying alone and mothers with children feel more comfortable during the flight.
Female Solo Travelers
“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 releases with regards to the same,” state an internal communication last month, according to the Hindustan Times.
India has long had a policy of offering women “safety” compartments on transport. Long-distance train trips come with “Ladies Cars” as a “gender sensitive” convenience. Each metro train in Delhi has such a section for women. Other airlines, such as British Airways, Qantas, Air New Zealand, and Virgin Australia have created policies that do not allow unaccompanied children to seate next to adult males on flights.
Unfortunately, however, those carriers are few and far between and the occurrences of women – and underage girls – experiencing unsettling groping incidents is still playing out on other airlines. In September, for instance, on an IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Guwahati a male passenger allegedly grope the adjacent female co-passenger after lifting the armrest.
A federal lawsuit was launches in July against Delta that accuse flight attendants of failing to intervene after an inebriated male passenger groped a mother and her 16-year-old daughter. Similar stories echo around such everyday carriers as Alaska, Spirit, JetBlue and United.
Conclusion
In one incident reported in March, an accused Delta passenger blamed poor eyesight for the misbehavior. During another occasion last year, it was “the Ambien” that caused it.
“Delta continues to cooperate with law enforcement in this matter,” a Delta spokesperson told a reporter. “We have zero tolerance for this type of alleged behavior on our flights and at our airports and the charged individual is no longer welcome to fly Delta.”
That American carriers will see “gender-sensitive” seat policies or ladies rows on planes for female solo travelers any time soon, however, is likely not on the horizon.
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