Flying from Newquay with children? Seat fees set to be scrapped

You book the family flights out of Newquay, reach the seat map, and there it is. A charge to guarantee you sit next to your own child. The Government now says that fee is on the way out, along with the one for fixing a typo in a name on a booking.

What the Government has announced

Under plans announced on Friday 2 October, airlines will be required to seat children under the age of 14 with a parent or accompanying adult free of charge. The Government says a parent and child can currently be charged up to £104 on a return journey to sit together.

Passengers will also be able to correct simple name errors on a booking for free. Those charges can run to as much as £40 for a minor mistake, according to the Government’s announcement.

None of this applies yet. The changes are set to follow Royal Assent of the Civil Aviation Bill, and the Government says the aim is to have them in place in time for next year’s summer holidays.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “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.”

What it means at Cornwall Airport Newquay

The Government says most UK airlines already offer protections against these costs, and that the point of the reforms is consistency across every airline operating in the UK. So how much changes for passengers at Cornwall Airport Newquay depends on who you fly with.

Ryanair flies several routes from Newquay, and the airport’s route list also includes Aer Lingus and Loganair. Ryanair changed its family seating policy in June, after an official investigation into its seat charges for parents was launched by the Competition and Markets Authority. Adults travelling with children can now skip the paid seat and be allocated one free after check-in, with children aged two to 11 placed beside at least one accompanying adult. Choosing your seats at the time of booking still costs money.

That leaves a gap. Ryanair’s policy stops at 11. The Government’s plan covers children under 14.

On names, Ryanair’s own rules already allow up to three characters per name to be corrected free, once, up to 48 hours before departure. Anything bigger counts as a name change and carries a fee.

A watch list for disruptive passengers

The same announcement covers behaviour on board. The Government says it is working with airlines and trade unions on a new system for sharing information about persistently disruptive passengers, so airlines can decide whether to extend a ban to their own flights.

Airlines logged more than 1,000 serious disruptive passenger incidents in 2025, the Government says, including a mid-air brawl that forced a flight to divert.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Everyone deserves to travel knowing their flight isn’t going to be disrupted by bad behaviour from a small minority.”

What Which? says

Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, welcomed the move. “It’s clearly unfair to force parents and children as young as three to pay an extra fee just to sit together,” he said.

Rory added that Which? “has successfully pressured many airlines into dropping these fees over the past ten years”.

The Government says industry will be engaged on how the changes are brought in once the Bill becomes law. No date has been given for that.

📷Curious little boy looking out the window while traveling by plane together with his father. Family, transportation, vacation concept