Should There Be A Families-Only Section On Planes?

Who among us hasn’t been trapped on an airplane with a howling baby or a loudmouth 4-year-old who thinks the plane is his playground? So maybe it won’t come as a surprise to you that a new survey says most travelers would be just fine and/or dandy with having a families-only section on flights.

The survey, conducted by fare-comparison site Skyscanner, says around 60% of travelers polled would be in favor of putting families with young children all in one section of the flight, and around 20% said they’d like the option of flying on a child-free flight.

While this might sound like a good idea to weary grown-up passengers, creating these families-only sections could be a logistical nightmare. One aviation consultant explains to USA Today that there’s “no way an airline can allocate seating capacity to families,” because airlines “don’t have any idea” before check-in how many families will be on a flight.

Of course, you know the airlines would just see a families-only section or kid-free flight as an opportunity to squeeze travelers for more ancillary fees. Want to sit in the seat farthest away from the kids? That’ll be a fee. Need earplugs because you got stuck next to the kids section? Oh, here you are. That’ll be five dollars.

What do you think? Is there any way a families-only section could be worked out in a reasonable fashion?

Over half of fliers would limit where kids can sit on planes [USA Today]

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