EasyJet pays compensation to passenger asked to move because she was female

‘We listened when Ms Wolfson told us about incidents of gender discrimination on our flights,’ said easyJet

Flight rules: ‘ flying should be a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, regardless of their gender,’ says easyJet (easyJet)

Britain’s biggest budget airline has apologised and paid an undisclosed amount in compensation to a passenger who was twice asked to give up her seat because she was female.

Melanie Wolfson, who was born in Britain but now lives in Tel Aviv, was asked to move on two separate flights because of ultra-Orthodox travellers who would not sit next to a woman.

She had sought 66,438 shekels (£14,400) in a suit filed by a reformist group, the Israel Religious Action Centre.

The first flight was from Tel Aviv to Luton in October 2019. Ms Wolfson had paid for an aisle seat, and found a father and son in the middle and window seats.

Ms Wolfson said that the son got out of his seat and climbed over to the row behind to avoid physical contact with her, then sought a male passenger who would be willing to change seats with her.

In January 2020, on another flight on the same route, Ms Wolfson was asked again to change seats by two ultra-Orthodox men. She declined, and two female passengers agreed to switch seats with the two men sitting next to her.

Ms Wolfson, a professional fundraiser, enlisted the support of the Israel Religious Action Centre to fight her case.

In a statement agreed with the centre, the airline said: “easyJet is aware of the issue where some male passengers say they are uncomfortable sitting next to women who are not in their immediate family, due to their religious beliefs and as a result request that a crew member ask female passengers to move seats.

“The airline has a policy to politely inform any customer who raises this request that this will not be accommodated. Unfortunately, according to Melanie Wolfson this policy was not followed in her case.

“Therefore, we listened when Ms Wolfson told us about incidents of gender discrimination on our flights when she was asked to move simply because she is female.

“We take this very seriously and in addition to compensating Ms Wolfson for her experience, easyJet intends to implement additional crew training and renew our crew guidelines in order to prevent these incidents from happening in the future.

“At easyJet we believe that flying should be a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, regardless of their gender and we are committed to making sure this is the case going forward.”