Passengers will see reduced prices for aviation travel as the government steps in to ease pressure on the cost of living by scrapping child seating fees and unnecessary admin costs.
On Friday 2 October, the UK government announced that airlines will be required to seat children under the age of 14 with a parent or accompanying adult free of charge – and passengers will be given greater flexibility to correct administrative mistakes on bookings for free. Currently, a parent and child could be charged up to £104 on a return journey, and passengers could be charged as high as £40 for minor name errors on their bookings.
While some UK airlines already offer protections against hidden costs, these new reforms will give passengers greater consistency on all airlines operating in the UK.
Alongside this, the government has announced it is working with airlines and trade unions to create a new system for sharing information on persistently disruptive passengers. In 2025, more than 1,000 serious disruptive passenger incidents were logged by airlines – which can cause significant disruption to passengers and crew while costing the airline when journeys are unable to be completed. The fresh system will make disruptors easier to spot, keeping staff and passengers safer and enabling airlines to take decisions on whether to extend their ban.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that these small extra expenses add up, making this one of the many everyday fixes that he has and will continue to implement.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said that these common-sense reforms will make flying safer for staff and passengers and protect people from unnecessary charges, regardless of the airline.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said that airlines that forced parents and children to pay an extra fee just to sit together were unfair and putting profit before their passengers.
The government hopes that these changes will bring greater consistency across the sector and will be delivered following Royal Assent of the Civil Aviation Bill, with industry engaged to ensure swift and fair implementation.