In an effort to make female fliers more comfortable, an Indian airline is letting women see the gender of prospective seatmates as they make their reservations.
IndiGo Airlines launched the new feature for passengers in May, but it has only recently become widely known. The carrier says male passengers will not have the option to check the gender of the people in their row.
The practice, while unusual for American fliers, is not uncommon in India. Female-only train cars have been around for a number of years. The practice, as you might guess, is safety-focused. The U.S. State Department has a travel advisory for India noting: “Do not travel alone, particularly if you are a woman.”
Women who check in for a flight will see pink icons indicating where other women are seated.
IndiGo, a low-cost carrier, is one of India’s leading airlines. In 2023, more than 104 million people took flights operated by the company. Since 2014, the number of daily flights has grown from 500 to over 2,000 last year.
“We are committed to providing an unparalleled travel experience for all our passengers, and this new feature is just one of the many steps we are taking towards achieving that goal,” the company said in a press release.
The number of Indian women taking to the skies is growing, as is the overall number of fliers in the country. India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, if it hasn’t already, and the United Nations expects India’s population to swell to 1.7 billion by 2050.
Rakesh Gangwal, cofounder of InterGlobe Aviation, which controls Indian budget carrier IndiGo, is also a board member at Southwest Airlines.