UK to End 'Parent Tax' on Flights, Scrapping Fees for Family Seating
New legislation will outlaw charges for families to sit together and for booking errors, following years of campaigning by consumer groups.
Airlines in the United Kingdom are set to end charges that require parents to pay extra to sit with their children on flights. The government also plans to eliminate fees for correcting simple mistakes made during booking.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced that the government aims to have the new legislation in place before the summer holidays next year. "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," Alexander stated.
The move follows years of advocacy by the consumer organization Which? on the issue. Previously, airlines like Ryanair and Wizz Air had policies that assigned children to seats with one adult, while easyJet and Jet2 aimed to seat children near family members on a first-come, first-served basis, with no guarantee of adjacent seating.
These seat selection fees have been a significant additional cost for families, particularly during school holidays. For example, a flight to Barcelona from London during half-term could cost a family of four with two young children approximately £282.80 per person, including seat selection fees, which is nearly nine times the cost for a solo traveler on a non-term date flight priced around £38.
The government highlighted that in 2025, airlines logged over 1,000 "serious disruptive passenger incidents." While cabin crew often attempt to reseat passengers to keep families together before takeoff, success depends on passenger cooperation, sometimes leading to fractious situations at the start of a journey. The article recounts a personal experience where a flight with random seat assignments led to children being placed far apart, necessitating the kindness of a fellow passenger to switch seats.
Ryanair had previously adjusted its policy in June, allowing children aged 2 to 11 to be assigned adjacent seats for free after check-in, following pressure from Which?. The upcoming legislation aims to formalize these changes and extend them across the industry, addressing what has been described as an "unethical chokehold" by carriers on passengers.
In addition to family seating, the new law will also ban fees for correcting minor errors on booking details, such as spelling or digit mistakes. The campaign by Which? has been instrumental in bringing these practices to light and pushing for legislative change in the House of Commons.