Airline seating policy takes aim at dark patterns in bookings

On March 18, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, acting through the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, directed airlines to make at least 60% of seats on every flight available free of charge, and to ensure that passengers booked under the same PNR are seated together, preferably in adjacent seats. The trigger was passenger inconvenience. The larger issue is that airlines, often aided by travel aggregators, have been using digital design to push passengers into paying more than they planned.