Norway finds Air France seating policy discriminatory

Norway's anti-discrimination tribunal found Air France's policy against seating men next to unaccompanied children to prevent any possibility of predatory behavior to be discriminatory, a passenger said Tuesday.

The cabin crew of an Oslo to Paris flight in October 2022 asked a man to swap seats with a woman before takeoff, saying he could not be seated next to two children traveling alone.

The man, Dominique Sellier, filed a complaint with the Norway's anti-discrimination tribunal Diskimineringsnemnda.

In proceedings, a lawyer for Air France argued that the crew was merely following company policy, which was based on the argument that men account for 97.93 percent of all suspected sex crimes.

"It was not a very nice situation," Sellier told AFP on Tuesday.

"The passengers around me were looking at me, they were waiting for me to change seats so we could take off," he said.

"Maybe some of it was me projecting, but I interpreted some of the looks like 'this guy is shady'," he said.

According to Diskimineringsnemnda's ruling late last year, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Air France's policy stipulates that if a flight is fully booked, a woman should "preferably" be seated next to unaccompanied minors.

Contacted by AFP, Air France's lawyer said he had no comment.

According to the summary of proceedings, the airline argued that Diskimineringsnemnda had no authority in the matter, as the incident occurred on a plane which was not registered in Norway.

It also argued that the different treatment for men and women was justified by the need to protect unaccompanied minors from the risk of "trafficking and other forms of violence and aggression."

Sellier said Air France generalisation about men went too far.

"How can we accept this kind of suspicion because we belong to the male gender?"

While he won his case before Diskimineringsnemnda, which was made up of three legal experts, Sellier said he had received no damages nor an apology from Air France.

During the flight, "I just got a glass of champagne in a paper cup."