This is further confirmed by the unqualified report transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās—the last narration cited by Muslim—which says, “No woman may travel unless she is accompanied by a maḥram.” This wording encompasses everything that people consider travel; and Allah knows best.

As for the opinion that a woman may journey in the company of a group of women for the obligatory Hajj, this runs contrary to the Sunnah. Imām al-Khaṭṭābī states in Maʿālim al-Sunan (2/276–277), as cited in the abridgement by Ibn al-Qayyim: “The Prophet ﷺ prohibited a woman from travelling unless a man who is her maḥram accompanies her. To allow her to set out for the Hajj while the condition laid down by the Prophet ﷺ is absent contradicts the Sunnah. Since travelling without a maḥram is an act of disobedience, it is impermissible to oblige her to perform Hajj—a duty of obedience—by means that entail disobedience.” End quote.

I would add that those scholars did not grant a woman unrestricted permission to travel without a maḥram; they allowed it only for the obligatory Hajj.

Imām al-Nawawī says in al-Majmūʿ (8/249): “With respect to supererogatory journeys, trips for trade, visiting, and the like, none of them are permissible except with a maḥram.” End quote.

Thus, the contemporary voices who show undue lenience by permitting a woman to travel without a maḥram for any and every journey find no support among the scholars whose opinions are to be relied upon.

They further argue that her maḥram can seat her on the plane, and another maḥram can receive her when she reaches her destination, claiming that an airplane is safe because of the large number of male and female passengers on board.