The UK government has confirmed that airlines will be required to seat children under the age of 14 with a parent or accompanying adult free of charge. The change, announced on Friday, October 2, scraps the extra fees that carriers previously charged families who wanted to sit together.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham branded the practice "a rip-off", saying: "Charging parents just to sit with their children is a rip-off, plain and simple. And being hit with a hefty fee for a simple spelling mistake on a booking form isn’t right either."
Scrapping child seating fees
The government said holidaymakers are set to save money as it steps in to ease pressure on the cost of living in time for next year’s summer holidays. Currently, a parent and child could be charged up to £104 on a return journey.
Burnham added: "People are fed up with these little charges that add up, so I’m putting a stop to them. This is what our everyday fixes are all about. Giving people room to breathe by tackling the small irritations that catch people out, waste their time and cost them money."
Free name corrections and new rules for disruptive passengers
As well as the seating changes, passengers will be given greater flexibility to correct simple name errors on bookings for free. This aims to end charges that can sometimes be as much as £40 for minor mistakes or admin tweaks.
There will also be new rules for disruptive passengers. In 2025, more than 1,000 serious disruptive passenger incidents were logged by airlines, including a mid-air brawl that resulted in a flight being diverted, causing significant disruption to passengers and crew as well as costs for the airline. The new system will make disruptors easier to spot, keeping staff and passengers safer from the start and enabling airlines to take decisions on whether to extend a ban on their airline.
Reaction and impact
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: "Parents should not have to feel the pinch just to sit next to their child on a flight, or for amending a simple booking error. That’s why we’re scrapping these unnecessary charges for all airlines – another everyday fix to help put money back in people’s pockets and give households more breathing room."
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: "It’s clearly unfair to force parents and children as young as three to pay an extra fee just to sit together. Airlines that have separated families are putting profit ahead of passenger peace of mind. Which? has successfully pressured many airlines into dropping these fees over the past 10 years. So it’s welcome to see the government taking firm action on this by outlawing these charges completely and finally putting an end to this rip-off. It is also positive to see greater flexibility to amend simple mistakes, protecting consumers from unnecessary charges."
While most UK airlines already offer protections against hidden costs, the new reforms are said to give passengers greater consistency on all airlines operating in the UK.
