3 Reasons Why All Airlines Should Offer Child-Free Sections

I’m a full-time traveling mom who shares her families adventures on social media, so it’s no surpirse that I believe that babies, kids, and their parents belong on planes. After all, Planes are public transportation. Babies are members of the public.

My recent viral post went viral for one reason: the algorithm sent it through the “babies shouldn’t fly” section of the internet. The haters were loud, proud, and wrong when it came to how parents feel when flying with their kids. This outpour of hatred online led me to research childfree airlines, childfree sections on airlines, and why some adults never learned to share their space.

What are Child-Free Sections

A recent survey by Photo AiD, an online passport photo company, showed that 8/10 adults prefer to fly without a baby. As a mom who travels full-time with a baby, I am one of those 8/10!

When Corendon Airlines announced their child-free seating option, the internet was divided. For $50, childfree passengers can now upgrade their seats to a section guaranteed to be free of babies. As a travel mom, this idea is genius.

Childfree sections aboard airplanes don’t mean families can’t fly. It does mean that the entitled idiots who think a baby will ruin their flight (spoiler, the food, uncomfortable seats, and recycled air do that), can now pay extra money for the privilege of being seated slightly further away from my son. It means the adults who will shoot me mean looks, groan when my baby cries, or lean their seat back aggressively aren’t going to be seated near me.

The child-free section of Corendon is a 93-seat section of the plane. Adult-only seats are separated, like business class, by a curtain, allowing child-free passengers to fly without seeing the screaming baby in row 21D – although you’ll probably still hear them.

Child-Free Sections Mean Less Pressure on Parents

My baby is the cutest baby in the world. He’s adorable, friendly, smart, and I love him. Yet, if I could pay $50 to fly in a separate section of the aircraft from him, I would.

As his mother, milk machine, and primary source of comfort, I’m stuck with him for the entire flight. This is different from the rest of the population on our airplane.

Giving passengers the option to pay more to avoid children or deal with children (and their emotions) could make parents feel more comfortable when their baby is melting down.

In the Photo AiD survey, 36% of participants blamed the parents for their children’s behavior. As the parent of a screaming baby, I can assure you that most of the time, we’re trying our hardest to keep ourselves and our babies calm.

Allowing people who don’t have the patience, mental capacity, or tolerance for loud noises to pay for the privilege of sitting in a quiet area of the plane benefits everyone.

On a recent flight from Thailand, my toddler lost it. After a long, strenuous travel day, he was tired, overstimulated, and didn’t want to sit in his seat. His breaking point was a delay on the tarmac. Forced to remain in his seat and unable to fall asleep, he started to cry. As his parents, we knew there was nothing we could do for him, besides hold him until he had worked through his emotions. Knowing his frustrated cries weren’t only bothering us, but drilling their was into the ears of everyone around us made it nearly impossible to remain calm!

More Enjoyable Flight Experience for Everyone

We’ve been lucky. Until now, we’ve only had one truly negative experience in person when traveling with our baby.

It was a night flight from Thailand, a red-eye. The woman seated in our row was extremely upset to be next to the baby, something she demonstrated through loud exhales, huffing, and an utter unwillingness to share her armrest – she pushed my arm off it with her hand!

Shortly after takeoff, we went to the restroom and changed our baby’s diaper. After doing the complicated dance of getting two adults and a baby up and into the bathroom, we came back to our seats and asked our neighbor if she wanted to get up for anything. She refused, turned away, and put in her noise cancelling earbuds.

As soon as I sat down with the baby and got settled, she tapped me on the shoulder, asking to go to the bathroom. Of course we got up and let her through.

She came back, sat down, waited for us to get settled in again, and then asked to go to the aisle so she could get something out of her bag. My husband, who was in the aisle seat, offered to get her bag for her. She refused, and said she’d like to get it herself.

After the third time she asked for us to get up, we asked the flight attendants for help. She was moved to an empty row and we could rest easier. She even thanked us for talking to the flight attendants as we disembarked 8 hours later.

The point of that story isn’t to scare anyone off of traveling with a baby but to showcase how beneficial a child-free section could be. Or a child section to frame it differently. By allowing people who really don’t want to travel with a baby a space to be baby-free and allowing those who don’t mind traveling with kids to sit together, we can create a baby-positive atmosphere onboard an aircraft.

Arguments against Child-Free Sections on Flights

Unfortunately, child-free sections won’t solve all your anti-baby woes. One issue with child-free sections, as opposed to child-free flights, is the enclosed space of an airplane. Even if you’ve paid extra to sit in a child-free section, you’ll still hear the screaming baby two rows back. Or, even worse, the child sitting in the row behind the child-free zone will still kick your seat.

The other issue with child-free sections is that they exclude parents and their children from parts of society. Would you be okay with an elderly-free section on the plane? How about a redhead-free section? Some parents claim having child-free sections on planes further exacerbates the distance between children and the rest of society—it confirms that children are a nuisance who need to be kept separate from everyone else.

Change the Narrative on Family Travel

I don’t view child-free sections as exclusionary, but I do think they have a PR problem that started with the choice to name certain sections of planes child-free instead of the rest of the planes family-friendly. Let’s start viewing the child-free sections on airplanes differently. Instead of focusing on the exclusionary nature of their names, we’ll focus on the rest of the plane, the child-inclusive section.

The Deutsche Bahn has Family Compartments on all of its long-distance trains—can we please have those on long-haul flights? We’ve never felt self-conscious when dealing with a toddler meltdown on the train. There, we’ve been surrounded by other families, nannies, babysitters, and people who don’t mind sitting near children.

Our favorite airports all have family zones in the terminals, sections of the airport with microwaves, kettles, toddler beds, and playgrounds. Giving families the tools they need to quiet and feed their babies before boarding a flight makes a huge difference in the amount of screaming our fellow passengers are subjected too.

By creating spaces on planes, in airports, and in life where families feel comfortable and kids can be kids, airlines can make flying easier (and more fun) for everyone.

Airlines with child-free zones

IndiGo

IndiGo flights have a “Quiet Zone” on board their aircrafts in rows 1-4 and 11-14. Children under 12 years old are banned from sitting in these rows, emergency exits, and in seats with extra legroom.

Air Asia X

Air Asia X offers 63 “quiet” seats, where passengers aged 12 and over can travel away from children. The area is separated from the rest of the cabin through dividers, galley, and toilets.

Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines excludes children 12 and under from their upper deck first-class seats onboard their Airbus A380 aircraft and babies from their first-class cabins onboard both the A380 and Boeing 747 aircraft. However, there are three overflow bassinets in the upper deck economy seats of the A380, and families will be seated there if the main deck is full.

Scoot Airlines

Scoot currently offer the opportunity for travellers to pay extra to be sat away from a child. Scoot Airlines offer the ScootinSilence option – a quiet zone on the aircraft, situated between business class and economy class. This quiet zone is for passengers aged 12 and above to sit in one of 33 seats in ScootinSilence. Passengers also get off of the plane ahead of economy class passengers, which is an additional benefit.

Corendon Dutch Airlines

Corendon Dutch Airlines offers an adult-only section on one route – from Amsterdam to Curacao. Adults wishing to book this option can select a seat in the adult-only section when purchasing their tickets for an additional 100 Euros per round trip ticket.

Alternatives to booking Child-Free Zones

I get it. Flying next to a screaming baby isn’t anyone’s idea of a great start (or end) to a vacation. It’s even worse when it’s not your baby! But, in case you’re not flying one of the airlines that offer child-free sections, here are a couple of steps you can take to avoid letting the littlest humans get under your skin.

Invest in a pair of high-quality noise-cancelling headphones.

As my husband said during our last baby-meltdown, it’s 2024. Buy the noise-cancelling headphones. Even without the baby, there are loud passengers, passengers without headphones, and background noises onboard an aircraft that get under anyone’s skin. Investing in a pair of high-quality noise-cancelling headphones is something you won’t regret.

Book Exit Row Seats

If you’re physically able to, book an exit seat. Children and infants aren’t allowed to sit in exit rows, meaning you’ll at least guarantee no babies in your row.

Avoid booking bulkhead seats

Long-haul flights offer bassinet seats to parents traveling with their infants at no extra cost. These seats are located in the bulkhead rows, any row directly behind a galley or restroom.

Avoid booking these rows if you’re traveling baby-free, as the probability of a baby sitting in those rows is far higher than any other row on the aircraft.

Check Seating Arrangement Maps

Several airlines, Japan Air and Condor amongst them, have started adding a baby icon to their seating charts for passengers. This means you can either see where a baby is booked to be seated, or where the airline’s computer program will seat a baby. On our upcoming flight to Hamburg, rows 12-16 have been designated as the baby rows, meaning there are infant logos on all these seats. Passengers looking to avoid babies should sit elsewhere.

Bottom Line

If you’ve followed all these steps and still somehow get seated near the screaming baby, please remain polite. Trust that these parents are doing everything possible to keep their little ones happy, healthy, and quiet. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work.

We’ve noticed that the least prepared, most tired, and most frazzled parents often fly for the worst reasons—unexpected losses, illnesses, or other last-minute emergencies that cause undue stress. Adding to the parent’s stress won’t help quiet the baby down, and creating a scene may only cause you to go viral, or get asked to leave the flight!

No flight lasts forever, even if it feels like they do. It’s best to ignore what you can, and politely get the flight attendant involved when necessary.