A UK watchdog has launched an investigation into Ryanair for charging up to £12 for parents to sit next to their children.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Europe’s largest low-cost airline to determine whether their seating policy violates consumer law.
Ryanair’s rules state that one parent or guardian must sit with a child aged between two and 11, including those with disabilities, when they travel on one of the carrier’s flights through a ‘mandatory family seat’.
The airline’s website advertises ‘free reserved seats for kids under 12,’ but accompanying adults must pay for a seat in order to secure a place next to them.
Reserving one of these seats costs between €4.50 and €13.50 (around £4–£12), typically about £8 per flight.
The fee applies to both outbound and return journeys.
For passengers travelling without young children selecting a seat is optional.
The CMA is investigating whether the practice is ‘unfair’ under consumer law by imposing additional costs on passengers travelling with children.
In addition, it will examine whether Ryanair’s approach effectively requires parents to pay for the airline’s child safety and disability obligations under aviation rules.
The probe by the UK watchdog will also focus on whether Ryanair’s seating policy violates consumer laws on ‘drip pricing’.
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‘Drip pricing,’ banned in the UK in 2024, refers to a practice where consumers are shown an initial price that later increases as additional charges are added during the booking process.
Ryanair has described the investigation as ‘bogus’ and has said the company looks forward to ‘disproving these false CMA claims’.
The airline added that its family seating policy ‘fully complies with all relevant laws and regulations and saves families money when travelling on the UK’s lowest fare airline’.
The CMA has just begun this investigation and stresses that it has not reached a conclusion on whether the airline has broken consumer laws.
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