Air India to reserve six seats for women on domestic flights
13 Jan 2017
In a first-of-its-kind move, national carrier Air India would reserve six seats in the front rows for women on its flights operating on domestic routes from next week.
Lone women travelers, at times get a middle or window seat on aircraft, which puts them to much inconvenience, particularly while going to washroom. In view of this, the airline would be reserving seats for them on aircraft flying on domestic routes, an Air India spokesperson said.
It had therefore been decided to keep all the six seats in the third row of the economy class on Airbus A320 reserved only for women from 18 January, the spokesperson said.
"However, women travelling with their family members would not be entitled to these seats," the spokesperson said.
The airline would reserve the third row in economy section of its single aisle planes used for flying within the country.
"From January 18, we will start reserving a row for single women flyers. Depending on how it goes, we will consider replicating the move on our international flights," said the airline's spokesman Anil Mehta.
The first two rows in economy class sell at a premium due to extra leg room and due to this, AI has reserved the row immediately behind them for women.
The decision comes after a flyer reportedly groped a woman co-passenger on-board in the carrier's Mumbai-Newark flight late last month. A business class flyer reportedly changed his seat to sit next to a female passenger in the economy class and allegedly groped her when she was asleep.
Experts are not happy with the move, as they feel it was not practical.
According to commentators, after being labeled as the world's third-worst performing airline by flight data firm FlightStats, Air India was taking some steps to improve its image.
