Air India to reserve six seats for women fliers

Mumbai: In a step taken to attract passengers, Air India (AI) will now reserve six seats for women passengers in economy class. The national carrier will begin reserving these seats from January 18. A few days ago  AI was in the news due to alleged false reports on its On Time Performance (OTP).  

The decision of having reserved seats for women was taken by the chairman and managing director (CMD) in Delhi on Thursday. According to this decision the third row of the economy class i.e., six seats of the entire row will be reserved for women passengers only. Senior officials from the airline said that the circular stating the same decision will be made and issued on Saturday.

Dhananjay Kumar, spokesperson of the airline, said, “Air India aims to make all our passengers feel at home and reserving these seats is a way to express our care and respect for women.” The government-run Air India was recently ranked as the “third-worst” airline in the world in terms of one time performance after Israeli carrier El Al and Iceland-based Icelandair. This was announced as part of the 8th Annual Airline OTP Service Awards by flight tracking and mentoring services provider Flightstats.

However, an AI spokesperson had trashed the OTP survey report, alleging that it was “fabricated”. To determine the finalists and winners, FlightStats examined flight status and arrival data aggregated from global sources including civil aviation authorities, airlines, airports, and major airline reservation systems. AI, after the alleged false report had sent a letter to Flightstats contesting the data shared by the global survey agency and questioning the veracity of the report. According to reports, AI had, in a strongly worded letter to Flightstats on January 10, not only contested the survey findings but had also termed it as an attempt to tarnish its image.