Unlike other passengers, who could choose a randomly assigned seat for free, parents were required by some airlines to pay to pick a seat next to their children. On others, parents who didn’t pay would be seated separately from children as young as three.
Over the past decade, Which? successfully challenged many airlines over these unfair fees and pressured them to drop the charges.
Crucially, our campaign highlighted that separating children from parents during flights can present a serious safety risk to all passengers on board.
Splitting up families isn’t safe
In 2019, we spoke to Dai Whittingham, chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, who told us that separating passengers is at best unwise, and at worst fatal.
‘It’s human nature,’ he says. ‘In an emergency situation anyone will try to get to their loved ones, even if it involves clambering over others, impeding the evacuation and putting lives at risk.’ He argues that any airline that intentionally splits up travelling companions is ‘putting its profits ahead of passenger safety’.
Eight years of pushing Ryanair to do the right thing
Ryanair remained the last major carrier to insist that parents pay extra to sit alongside their children.
We initially raised concerns about this unfair fee with Ryanair back in 2018.
At the time, the airline defended its rules, stating: ‘Ryanair’s family seating policy is very clear and requires families (with children under 12) to sit together, with one adult taking a reserved seat for just £6, and the children given free of charge reserved seats.’
It continued to defend it over the years, when challenged. In 2024, Ryanair denied charging parents to be with their children, responding: ‘We don’t charge "parents" to sit with children. Rather, the child seats are provided free of charge when they sit beside one parent, who must reserve a seat for a fee of €4.’
By 2025, we formally escalated the matter by reporting Ryanair’s practice to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Government action on fees
Following sustained campaigning, the UK government has now committed to banning family seating fees entirely.
Under the new regulations, airlines will have to seat children under 14 next to a parent or accompanying adult for free.
The change in law should be in place before the start of next year's school summer holidays.
This is part of a series of measures in the Civil Aviation Bill, which includes several other changes that Which? has been campaigning for on behalf of consumers.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/how-we-took-on-airlines-charging-parents-fees-to-sit-next-to-children-akf8D0a3QoGv