{"id":27701,"date":"2026-06-28T21:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T18:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=27701"},"modified":"2026-06-28T16:10:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:10:57","slug":"ryanair-to-allow-parents-flying-with-young-children-to-avoid-seat-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=27701","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair to allow parents flying with young children to avoid seat fee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"block-caa-content\"><main class=\"content-wrapper\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-wrapper__white\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-xl-9 col-md-8 content-wrapper__side-content\">\n<p>Ryanair has adjusted its family seating policy after an investigation was launched into it charging parents to sit with their children on flights.<br \/>\nThe airline said the \u201cminor policy tweak\u201d means \u201cfree parent seats\u201d will be available in the rear of its aircraft for future bookings.<br \/>\nAll children on the booking will be allocated seats alongside them for no fee.<br \/>\nEarlier this month, British watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had opened an investigation to determine whether Ryanair\u2019s policy at the time was \u201cin line with consumer law.\u201d<br \/>\nRyanair previously required parents travelling with children aged between two and 11 to pay to reserve what it referred to as a mandatory family seat.<br \/>\nTheir children were then allocated seats next to or near them free of charge.<br \/>\nThe fee for a mandatory family seat was typically about \u00a38 ($10) each way, the CMA said.<br \/>\nUnder the new policy, parents will still have the option of paying to reserve a seat of their choosing, and have their children alongside them free of charge.<br \/>\nRyanair chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary accused the CMA of \u201cturning a blind eye\u201d to the \u201chigh fares\u201d charged by airlines on routes with no competition from the Dublin-based carrier.<br \/>\nHe said: \u201cThe CMA has now targeted our family seating policy which has been universally embraced by consumers as the most progressive and transparent in Europe.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cInstead of promoting competitiveness and lower fares for consumers, the CMA is on a mission to force Ryanair to adopt the less transparent and less consumer-friendly family seating policy applied by most other airlines &#8211; just because it\u2019s the industry standard.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWe will reluctantly adjust to this industry standard as we don\u2019t want to waste time explaining to misguided regulators how badly they misunderstand what is in the best interest of UK and Europe\u2019s consumers.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cUnder our revised family seating policy, families may have to wait until after they have checked in to find out their seat allocation and are more likely to be seated at the rear of the cabin but at least the CMA will be able to claim they have done something for consumers, but sadly most consumers won\u2019t notice.\u201d<br \/>\nRyanair said the change will be \u201crevenue neutral.\u201d<br \/>\nA CMA spokesperson said: \u201cRyanair claims its seating policy now complies with the law, and we\u2019ll test that thoroughly.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cIf true, it\u2019s a win for families &#8211; who will no longer have to pay to sit with their children &#8211; and it shows the impact our new powers are having.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t change the fact families have been paying for \u2018mandatory family seats\u2019. Our investigation remains ongoing.\u201d<br \/>\nThe CMA said Ryanair\u2019s decision to change its policy was made at its own discretion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ryanair has adjusted its family seating policy after an investigation was launched into it charging parents to sit with their children on flights. The airline said the \u201cminor policy tweak\u201d means \u201cfree parent seats\u201d will be available in the rear of its aircraft for future bookings. All children on the booking will be allocated seats &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[96,98,102,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-companies","category-featured-en","category-travelers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.9 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ryanair to allow parents flying with young children to avoid seat fee - aviation news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=27701\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ryanair to allow parents flying with young children to avoid seat fee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ryanair has adjusted its family seating policy after an investigation was launched into it charging parents to sit with their children on flights. 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