When you are travelling, any noise, when combined with stress and sleep deprivation, is magnified by a thousand decibels more. When it's a child crying beside you in an airplane thousands of feet off the ground, it can very well be your breaking point. For this very reason, some airlines, especially in Asia, have started child-free flights.
This issue has been hounding airlines and frequent travelers for years. More recently, Yahoo Travel reports of a journalist Kelly Rose Bradford, a mother of a 12-year old who appeared in a talk show in UK telling mothers to stop bringing their little ones on planes.
She says, 'I think there's an element of selfishness from parents who insist on not changing their lifestyle once they have their children because there are some things that just aren't practical.'
She explains that if there is a business class, a first class, then maybe airlines can have a family section in the airplanes.
In 2010, an article in the New York Times listed the incidents of adult vs. crying child on flights. A woman claimed she suffered hearing loss after sitting next to a 3-year old boy who was screaming from New York to Australia. Another airline removed a whole family from a flight when their 3-year old refused to take her seat and quiet down.
A poll conducted by Skyscanner in 2010 showed that 59% of its respondents want a special section for families. 20% of the respondents would like to have child-free flights.
So how come if there is a clamor for it, why hasn't the airlines heeded these requests? An expert pointed out that there can be no discrimination for passengers with families. It likened the situation to having a section for obese people only. Or a flight specifically for senior citizens.
There is also the issue of economy. Airlines have to try to fill up the airplanes, and segregating passengers will just spread them into many more flights that are not filled to capacity. On the part of the traveler, limiting their options to travel will make them go to the competitor's airline. What if a loyal passenger needed to take a 3pm flight, but could not do so since it is a no-child flight? Would that loyal passenger wait for the 7pm flight, or go to the other counter?
In Asian flights, however, since 2013, there have already been airlines with specified areas free of children under 12 years old. This includes Singapore Airline's budget carrier, Scoot Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and AirAsia X.
