Ryanair has updated its family seating policy following an investigation into its charges for parents seeking to sit with their children on flights by the UK regulatory body.
The airline said it was making a “minor policy tweak”, indicating that soon there will be free seats in the back of its aircraft for parents. The move follows weeks of an investigation by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into Ryanair’s seating system in the past and whether it violated consumer protection laws.
The previous policy stated that parents with kids between 2 and 11 years old had to buy a family seat. Then, the airline would seat the children next to or near the paying adult for no additional charge. CMA said the seat reservation charge was normally some £8 (€9) per journey.
The watchdog earlier this month began an investigation into whether the practice violated consumer law and whether families were being treated fairly when booking flights.
Ryanair had earlier justified its stance, arguing that it was in line with all relevant legal and regulatory obligations. The airline is now seeking to make changes to the system, stating that the change “will not affect the airline’s business in any financial way.
The new plan would ensure that Ryanair’s family seating policy would conform with many other European carriers, the company said in a statement. The company also raised that the change was in response to regulators’ preference on seating layouts in Europe.
The air company said it does not anticipate that the policy change will have an impact on earnings because it is “revenue neutral.
This will probably be good news for families that have complained about airline seating fees in recent years. Many consumer groups have complained about parents being forced to pay extra to ensure that they sit with their young children.
The CMA is now increasingly turning its attention to airline practices with respect to passengers, including issues of pricing transparency and optional fees. This review of family seating policies is part of the regulator’s broader work to give consumers clear information and prevent them from being disadvantaged by unfair charges when booking a flight.
Ryanair is one of the biggest LCCs in Europe, flying millions of passengers each year throughout its vast network. The latest policy adjustment by the airline comes amid increasing scrutiny of airline practices with regards to seating families, though some of their adjunct fees are still considered to be too high as part of their low-fare model.
However, it is not known what the CMA will conclude in the investigation, but Ryanair’s move is a significant change in their family travel booking strategy.
