Following the launch of an official investigation, Ryanair has adjusted its family seat allocation policy to match the industry standard. This means that there will no longer be a compulsory seat reservation fee for parents travelling with children under 12.
The airline’s previous policy, whilst fully compliant with ‘all relevant laws and regulations’, meant that at least one adult would have to pay a mandatory seat reservation fee (costing around £8 each way). They could then select up to 4 reserved seats for the children travelling with them – for free.
Ryanair believe that this long-standing policy gave families more certainty – but as it was the only airline operating from the UK with this seating system, the Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) launched an investigation regarding whether the policy was fair.
Ryanair’s minor policy tweak came into effect last week and means that those travelling with young children now have the option to have their seats randomly allocated to them for free after they have checked in. This, however, means that it’s likely that these randomly allocated seats will be towards the rear of the plane, as seats further towards the front are often reserved before check-in.
If passengers would prefer to reserve specific seats prior to check-in, they will still have the option to do so under the airline’s previous policy. Ryanair (Europe’s largest and lowest-cost airline) has confirmed that this rule-tweak will be ‘revenue-neutral’ for the airline.
Michael O’Leary, CEO at Ryanair, said that the airline’s previous family seating policy was ‘universally embraced by consumers as the most progressive and transparent in Europe’ and that Ryanair will ‘reluctantly adjust’ to the industry standard, despite him believing that the family seating policies applied by most other airlines are ‘less transparent and less consumer-friendly’.
