Move over, Ryanair – another airline is coming up with some wild ideas

It’s not easy for airlines to top the headline-grabbing antics of Ryanair. This is the budget carrier that once floated the idea of charging passengers an extra fee to use the onboard toilet, and even proposed discounts for those willing to stand up for their whole flight.

Those suggestions were clearly never going to be implemented – they were just for attention. And they worked. Every time you think of a budget airline doing something crazy now, you think about Ryanair.

And so, lately, I’ve been thinking about Ryanair. Not because the Irish airline has come up with another wild idea, but because another airline from an entirely different continent has stolen its thunder.

Meet IndiGo, an India-based carrier that is one of the largest airlines in the world, and which has been making headlines recently for ideas that, at face value, might seem like they’re straight out of the Ryanair playbook. Only these are far more serious, and they’re actually happening.

Book a flight on IndiGo, check the cost breakdown upon payment, and you will find that in there with taxes and seat selection fees and all the usual hidden costs, there’s a “cute fee”.

When questioned on social media about this new 50-rupee (88¢) charge – is it because I’m so cute? – the airline advised that the word “cute” stood for “Common User Terminal Equipment”. That is, the airport infrastructure used by all passengers - metal detectors, escalators, gate signage and so on.

You might think, wait, doesn’t the airport pay for that? And it does – it just routinely passes that cost on to airlines, who then work the expense into their fares. No one has thought to highlight these services as an extra charge because why would you?

Unless, of course, you’re trying to get attention.

But let’s move on to the second idea, which is far less trivial. Though it’s still in its trial phase right now, IndiGo made more headlines recently when it announced a new function on its booking platform, allowing female passengers to see where other women had chosen to sit on the seating map. The function is not available to passengers who identify as men.

The reason for this change, clearly, is to allow female passengers to avoid sitting next to men.

This caused predictable outrage in certain corners of the internet, but was also welcomed by many. Why? Because women get assaulted by strange men on aeroplanes. It happens around the world, though it has been a particular issue in India.

Read through the stories posted on social media by women since the announcement from IndiGo, and you get an idea of the necessity of this system. Every woman in the world has a story of unwanted attention from men; plenty have stories of that attention taking place on an aeroplane, a confined, tight and sometimes dark space where alcohol is served and which there is no escape from.

The main surprise to me is that no other airline has offered this before. If you’re a woman reading this you probably understand the issue immediately; if you’re not, then read the stories women are sharing online or talk to your family and friends about their lived experiences.

If you could click a button and just sit next to another woman instead of a strange man – particularly in India, widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries for women, where crimes against women in the decade leading up to 2021 increased 87 per cent, and have continued to increase since then – why wouldn’t you?

This is the rare story of an airline proposing something bold and newsworthy and actually making it a worthwhile improvement, one that might make valuable change in the world. It’s controversial, of course, but necessary.

The question now is, will other airlines around the world follow suit?

There’s no way the likes of Jetstar or Virgin in Australia will introduce a “cute fee” to their ticketing breakdown – passengers don’t want to feel like they’re being hit with an extra cost. Most airlines across the globe, however, will be watching this gender-based seating trial with interest.

I can’t see any of Australia’s three major carriers introducing it. The fallout would be too intense from the usual easily offended suspects. The risk of having to fight discrimination lawsuits would also be too real. And the necessity, or the urgency, for gender-based seating isn’t quite the same here as it is in India – though I’m sure it would still be welcomed by many.

Maybe Ryanair will try it over in Europe – although someone else has already got the publicity.