UK competition authorities investigate Ryanair over family seating charges
Ryanair is to be investigated by the UK’s competition regulator over its policy of charging families to sit together on flights. The policy requires an adult passenger to reserve and pay for a assign seat so that they can guarantee their children will be seated next to them.
While the dispute is currently being scrutinised by the UK authorities, it has shone a light on the wider issue of how airlines charge for family groups to sit together, with the US DOT also looking into the matter.
Ryanair under scrutiny over family seating policy
On 11 June, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was investigating whether the fees charged by Ryanair for families to be assigned seats together were compliant with UK consumer law.
According to the organisation, the average seat charge per Ryanair flight for an adult was currently £8, adding £16 to the cost of a round-trip flight.
Under Ryanair’s current seating policy, an adult passenger travelling with children can choose to pre-select an assigned seat at the time of booking or check-in. Should they do so, then up to four children travelling with that adult are guaranteed to be seated with that adult.
Should the passenger decline the purchase of a seat assignment, Ryanair policy states that any accompanying child will be seated “within a single row“ of that adult, although this could not be guaranteed.
The CMA states that Ryanair’s own terms and conditions state that a parent must sit with their child if aged between the ages of two and 11 years, and this is managed through what the airline calls a ‘mandatory family seat’ that the parent must pay a fee for.
However, the CMA believes that charging to sit with children is potentially anti-competitive and is a policy that no other UK airlines, including British Airways, easyJet, TUI UK, Virgin Atlantic, and Jet2, follow.
According to the CMA, the other UK airlines offered to seat children next to a parent or guardian without charging a fee, and allocated seats together automatically during booking for free.
The CMA said it was therefore investigating whether Ryanair’s approach to seat reservations may mean parents are being charged for the airline to meet its “child safety and disability‑related obligations” as set out under existing aviation regulations.
The body added that it will investigate further to determine whether or not this practice is in line with consumer law.
Ryanair refutes any wrongdoing over seating cost row
Referring to the CMA investigation, Ryanair issued a statement saying that it considered the investigation “bogus” and insisted its family seating policy “fully complied with all relevant laws”.
Ryanair reiterated its policy that adults travelling with children were only required to pay one reserved seat fee, but then can select reserved seats beside them for up to four children on the same booking free of charge.
“This means that parents travelling with children pay for only one (adult) reserved seat, but pay nothing for the four other reserved seats for their children travelling with them.”
“This bogus CMA investigation is a failed effort by the Starmer government to pretend it cares about consumers when it has failed to abolish Air Passenger Duty, which would immediately deliver lower fares for all consumers and growth for the UK aviation, tourism and wider economy.”
“Ryanair looks forward to disproving these false CMA claims during this bogus investigation,” the airline concluded.
While the CMA’s investigation has just begun, the body stated that it had “reached no conclusions about whether Ryanair has broken the law”.
Meanwhile, travel industry experts have pointed out that such investigations take months rather than weeks to reach a conclusion and that they do not expect a decision on the matter before summer 2027 at the earliest.
The US is also looking at family seating costs
While this dispute centres on Ryanair’s policy for charging for family seating, the issue has been at the centre of a US Department of Transportation (US DOT) investigation for several years, having made family seating a major consumer-protection issue back in 2023.
That year, the DOT launched an online Airline Family Seating Dashboard that shows which airlines voluntarily guaranteed adjacent seating for a child aged 13 or younger and an accompanying adult at no additional cost (subject to certain conditions).
At the time of its release, the goal was to “help travellers compare airline policies and encourage carriers to eliminate family seating fees,” said the US DOT.
As of 2026, only a limited number of U.S. airlines, including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and JetBlue, formally guarantee that children aged 13 or younger will be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional cost, subject to certain booking conditions.
Most other carriers state that they will make reasonable efforts to seat families together, but do not provide a comparable guarantee.
Although the US DOT had proposed regulations aimed at preventing airlines from charging families extra to secure adjacent seating, those regulations had not yet come into force.
Proposed rules would require airlines to seat young children with accompanying adults or offer alternatives such as refunds or rebooking if they cannot do so.
Featured image: Ryanair
