The Prosecutor General’s Office has achieved changes in flight rules for passengers with children

General Prosecutor’s Office reportedthat, at the direction of the head of the department, Igor Krasnov, a check was carried out to ensure that airlines and airports respected the rights of passengers with young children. As a result, changes were made to the companies’ transportation rules. In particular, passengers were given the right to choose which accompanying person the child would fly with.

The report from the Prosecutor General’s Office states that some carriers gave passengers the opportunity to transfer children from one accompanying person to another, including when adult passengers were in different classes of service. The agency clarifies that the rule for transplanting children applies to children under 12 years of age, as well as to children under two years of age.

The inspection was initiated after the Prosecutor General’s Office found that some airlines seat children and parents separately. The department’s statement notes that this was evidenced by numerous appeals from citizens and media materials.

In February 2022, the head of the relevant committee of the Federation Council on economic policy, Andrei Kutepov, proposed discussing with carriers the problem of paid seat selection when checking in for a flight. Then he said that because of this service, children and parents are often seated separately from each other on the plane. The airlines said they were doing everything possible, but were not ready to give up the service, which brings them up to 10% of revenue from a flight. Nowadays, most airlines indicate in their travel rules that parents and children are allocated seats next to each other, if available.

Read more in the Kommersant article. “Seedbeds of family values”.