Recently, Virgin Atlantic announced that its female crew was not required to wear makeup and skirts if they wished to, in an effort to push for gender equality. And now the Indian aviation industry has also started to become more accessible to women. Indian full-service airline Vistara, on March 6, announced that it would provide sanitary pads on request aboard its domestic flights from March 8, that is International Women’s Day.
In a statement, Vistara said that it was the first Indian airline to take up the initiative and the sanitary pads will be available on all their domestic flights. The sanitary napkins are bio-degradable and are made from plant-based fibres, classifying as organic. The passengers will be made aware of the facility through in-flight announcements made by the cabin crew.
This #InternationalWomensDay, Vistara is proud to be India’s first airline to provide sanitary pads aboard all domestic flights, starting 8th Mar ’19. These pads are organic & bio-degradable. #PadsOnBoard #VistaraForWomen #VistaraWomanFlyer #WomensDay #NotJustAnotherAirline pic.twitter.com/A1jmmoYYky
— Vistara (@airvistara) March 6, 2019
According to Deepa Chadha, Senior Vice President, HR and Corporate Affairs,
“The initiative to provide sanitary pads to our customers is a meaningful one that reflects our core philosophy that ‘small things make a big difference’. As a woman, I feel a greater sense of pride for being part of an organization that’s providing such an essential amenity to customers – something that will help so many travellers in times of need.”
On a pilot basis, the first sanitary napkin vending machine was installed at Indore airport in October 2017. In 2018, the Airport Authority of India started installing sanitary napkin vending machines at airports across the country, including Kolkata, Port Blair, Guwahati, Varanasi, Surat, Jaipur and Bhubhaneshwar.
Started in 2015, Vistara now operates a fleet of 21 aircraft and currently has a domestic market share of 4%.
