Question : Reservation of Seats for Women in Flights

(a) whether attention of the Government is drawn to recent incident where a women passenger on a Mumbai-New York flight was reportedly molested by a person, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has taken any steps to protect the women from such attacks, if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether Air India proposes to reserve one row in economy class for single women travellers on domestic flights, if so, the details thereof and the objective behind the move;

(d) whether the Government proposes to make it mandatory for other private airlines to reserve one row for women travellers on domestic flight; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard?

Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION

(Shri Jayant Sinha)

(c) Air India, effective 18th January’2017 is offering an entire third row, in its Economy Class on its Domestic Flights for women passengers. Seats can be availed by women passengers, at no extra cost from Air India’s Airport offices up to 1 hour and 30 minutes before departure of the domestic flight.

Scheme is not valid on Air India - International, Alliance Air and Air India’s code share flights.

Air India have been receiving requests, at the check-in counter from female passengers preferring to sit with a lady passenger. The conceptualization of above scheme was based on this feedback.