Vistara, AirAsia add gender-neutral flight booking options

Air Vistara and AirAsia made their ticket booking ‘gender-neutral’ with an option titled ‘MX’

In a positive step of reconsigning the trans community, Air Vistara and AirAsia airlines have made their ticket booking gender-neutral by adding a third option.

This decision is believed to be the outcome of an online petition started in 2020, by Inderjeet Ghorpade, a member of the LGBTQIA+ group ‘YesWeExist’. While booking an airline ticket for his friend who is a trans, non-binary person, he realised that none of the airline companies in India offered any “gender-neutral titles”.

“Many members of the LGBTQI community prefer using the ‘MX’ title. But, I was shocked to see that the ‘MX’ option was not available while booking air tickets in India. To make air ticket booking gender-neutral, I started a petition on Change.org called Change.org/StopPinkWashing,” Mr. Ghorpade said.

He then started speaking about the issue on social media and garnered support for his cause. He also wrote emails to airlines to alert them on the issue and sensitize them about the community’s demands. Over 33,000 people signed his petition and supported the cause.

The online petition mentions, “The Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mentions that transgender persons should not be denied or unfairly treated with regard to the right to movement and access to services. All airlines in India violate this Act. Four years ago, Indian Railways updated their booking form and added transgender as an available gender option.