Airlines opt for kid-free zones
MORE AND MORE PASSENGERS are paying to stay away from younger flyers
Andy Curr says her worst inflight experience was brought on by her own offspring.
Curr, a web designer from Sydney, was travelling from London to Bangkok about three years ago when her second-youngest daughter, then 20 months, “screamed all the way,” she said. The wailing got her older children going too.
“Once one goes off, they all start,” said Curr, 41.
Balancing the needs of customers wanting a peaceful trip with those of harried parents has become a major challenge for airlines trying to cater to both groups. Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s budget carrier Scoot unveiled a child-free zone for passengers prepared to pay extra, following AirAsia X Bhd. and Malaysian Airline System Bhd, who also segregate kids.
Seat-kicking and unruly children came ahead of drunken passengers, rude cabin crew and lecherous neighbours as on-board annoyances in a July survey by British financial services comparison website Gocompare. Respondents said they’d be prepared to add $82 to the cost of a return flight if they could sit in child-free zones.
“People love their own kids, but they might not necessarily love someone else’s to the same extent,” said Scoot chief executive officer Campbell Wilson.
There was “some very robust debate” in the office about the merits of the service, said Wilson, who doesn’t have children. Several col- leagues who are parents favoured a play area instead, he said. Carriers who’ve introduced child-free zones say they haven’t received significant negative feedback.
“Getting choice means you are satisfying both sets of people,” Azran Osman Rani, CEO of AirAsia X Bhd. “Even families with kids are positive because now they are in the other zone and they feel less guilty.”
Some airlines are responding. Malaysian Airlines introduced a largely child-free upper deck on its A380 aircraft when it entered service on July 1, 2012.
“You’re all in one tin can, so it’s a little bit difficult to keep everyone happy,” said Marcus Osborne, a father of three, who works in Kuala Lumpur. “If I had the option to sit in an area where there were no kids, I would probably jump at the chance.”
The introduction of child-free zones risks backfiring if it alienates parents and will probably only work for budget airlines, said Andrew Wong, regional director for Europe and Australia at TripAdvisor Inc.’s flights unit.
“It’s a bit of a tricky area for full service carriers,” he said. “You don’t really want to vilify parents travelling with kids, they’re people just like you and me.”
Still, branding children as the biggest source of inflight annoyance isn’t fair, given the behaviour of some adults on flights, said Curr, the Sydney web designer. She’s started a blog about travelling with her four children at age three to 14 on her website flyingwithbaby.com, which advises on “getting there without going insane.”
“You can’t choose who you fly with,” she said. “Adults are usually the worst-behaved, and drunk sometimes.”