Air France guilty of discrimination against male passengers: “People looked at me as if there was something wrong with me”

The incident took place on October 27, 2022. The crew of a flight between the Norwegian capital Oslo and the French capital Paris asked Dominique Sellier to switch places with a female passenger before takeoff. The reason was that otherwise he would be sitting next to two unaccompanied children and that would pose a greater risk of violence.

During the handling of the case, Air France’s lawyer referred to the airline’s internal regulations. This says that on a full plane, unaccompanied minors “preferably” sit next to a woman. According to the lawyer, the difference in treatment was permitted to protect unaccompanied children against the risk of “human trafficking and other forms of violence”, crimes that are almost always committed by men.

“It was not a pleasant situation,” Sellier said. “The passengers around me were looking at me, expecting the seat change to happen so we could take off. Maybe I was imagining it a bit, but some people seemed to look like something was wrong with me. How can you accept such suspicion just because you are male? That is a generalization of men that seems to me to be going a bit far,” the passenger added.

Although the anti-discrimination committee agreed with him, the man said he had not yet received any compensation or apology. Air France’s lawyer did not yet want to comment on the Norwegian anti-discrimination commission’s ruling.