New Delhi: Budget airline SpiceJet Ltd will reserve its fourth row for female passengers travelling alone, following a practice adopted by national carrier Air India Ltd.
“(From) 8th March 2017 onwards SpiceJet will be reserving the whole of its 4th row for its solo women passengers. The initiative will be observed on all its flights across the fleet inclusive of both Boeings and Q400s (planes),” SpiceJet said in a statement on Monday.
8 March is International Women’s Day.
“In case of a full flight scenario, males will be assigned window seats; whereas the aisle and middle seats (B, C and D, E) will be assigned to women on a first come first serve basis. The special seating arrangement is being catered to offer more ease to the solo female travellers, as moving out of the middle or the aisle seats is much easier thereby ensuring safety and comfort to them in case of an emergency and even otherwise,” the statement added.
On 8 March, female passengers travelling alone will also be able to upgrade to SpiceMax seats if the latter are available. SpiceMax provides extra legroom, priority check-in, complimentary meal, priority baggage handling and priority boarding.
“The airline will also be offering complimentary hot beverages and cookies to all women passengers on all its Boeing flights along with the F&B (food and beverage) service,” it said.
Air India had from 18 January started reserving one row—six seats—in economy class for single women travellers on all its domestic flights. It was the first time an airline had taken such a step.
SpcieJet has about 343 daily flights to 45 destinations on a 49-plane fleet and about 13% domestic market share.
