A European airline will cordon off the first 12 rows of its A350 aircraft to create an adults-only area where no one under the age of 17 may sit.
“This zone in the aircraft is intended for travelers traveling without children and for business travelers who want to work in a quiet environment," Corendon Airlines announced in a media release that was widely reported by the aviation industry press.
The Turkish-Dutch carrier, which has been flying since 2005, will reportedly implement the special section on flights between Amsterdam and the Caribbean island of Curaçao beginning November 3.
Standard seats in the new, urchin-free area can be had for a surcharge of €45 (US$49). So far, Corendon has not announced plans to expand the no-kids area beyond that route.
A total of 102 seats out of the aircraft's 432 will be allocated for the adults-only section. Curtains will separate the area from the rest of the cabin during the 10-hour journey. (If you're truly concerned about noise from kids, you might want to sit as far from those curtains as possible. Having lived through the era of pointless smoking sections on flights, I can attest that mere curtains can't stop anything, be it cigarette stank or kindergarten tantrums, from affecting the entire cabin.)
Would you pay extra for a flight if you knew that little kids would be forbidden to go anywhere near you? Parents and teachers, you're excused from answering.
Childless flight zones are already a thing in Asia, where many cultures place a strong emphasis on respecting elders. Malaysia's AirAsia X and Malaysia Airlines, Singapore's Scoot, and India's IndiGo have all had designated adults-only or enforced quiet zones on some flights for many years now.
Most U.S.-based airlines allocate seat assignments as if children don't exist. After the major carriers started charging for advance seat assignments, being able to sit with your own kids took a back seat to surcharge greed.
In fact, America's airline seating problem for kids has become so bad that the United States Department of Transportation has had to wheel out an informational "dashboard" that warns consumers about airlines that won't allow passengers to sit with their children without paying extra.
Given that U.S. carriers are actually profiting from the threat of separating adults from their little ones, maybe it's actually less outrageous that airlines elsewhere are profiting from excluding kids instead.
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