How much would you pay for a child-free cabin, Turkish airline asks

One of Corendon Airlines' current Boeing 737 aircraft. Photo / Jens Meyer

A Dutch-Turkish carrier has divided opinions, and their aircraft cabins, by offering passengers the option for baby-free seating. At a cost.

Corendon Airlines has unveiled plans to include a 102-seat adults-only section on their new A350 fleet.

From November, the carrier will begin operating five non-stop a350-900 flights a week between Amsterdam and Curaçao, in the Dutch Caribbean.

However, what has turned heads about the new air link is the fact they will be trialling a new cabin class excluding travellers under 16 from the front of the plane.

Passengers wishing to reserve a seat in the baby-free zone will be charged a premium of €45 ($80), or up to €100 ($180) for one of the nine extra-legroom seats.

As well as operating an airline, the Turkish travel group specialises in resorts and hotels in the Netherlands, Turkey and the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Now, Corendon is offering adults-only experience on their flights as well as resorts.

However, Corendon says this is not about cashing in on passengers’ phobia of sitting next to a crying toddler for the 10-hour flight from Schiphol. They say it will also allow families travelling with young children to relax in the knowledge that anyone who is bothered by noise will have bought a kid-free fare.

Kid-free cabin: Corendon airline is charging passengers to avoid children on their A350 service to the Caribbean. Photo / Supplied

“We are also the first Dutch airline to introduce the only adult zone, because we are trying to appeal to travellers looking for some extra peace of mind during their flight,” said Atilay Uslu, founder of Corendon.

“We also believe this can have a positive effect on parents travelling with small children. They can enjoy the flight without worrying if their children make more noise.”

The adults-only zone will be shielded from noise by cabin panels and curtains, creating “a sheltered environment that contributes to a calm and relaxed flight”.

The airline says the configuration will appeal to “business travellers” who want to get work done on the long-haul flight between the Dutch capital and the south Caribbean holiday resort.

The new configuration is only aboard the route and it remains to be seen if passengers would pay for a child-free flight.

Brett Snyder, who runs a travel agency and writes the Cranky Flier blog, told Associated Press that there could be demand for adult seats.

“For a heavy leisure airline like Corendon, which is probably full of families with little kids, I can see the appeal for someone travelling without kids to pay extra to be away from them to have more peace and quiet,” Snyder said.

After a recent incident involving a young child illuminating a cabin with strobe lights, €45 seems a bargain.

Airlines flying child-free cabins

Corendon is not the first to try selling cabins with no small children.

On announcing its return to New Zealand last year, the low-cost carrier AirAsiaX said it would be bringing its “quiet zone” cabin class at the front of economy to Auckland. For a fee, passengers aged 10 and over can sit in the front seven rows of their A330s - reserved for peaceful travel.

Scoot, a low-cost airline based in Singapore, sells a section where passengers must be at least 12.

In 2012, Malaysia Airlines said it would carve out a child-free cabin area in the upper deck of their A380 for an adults-only fare class. They later had to amend this, stating there might be occasions where there were too many young travellers to operate an adults-only cabin.

The airline is also one of the few to have made the decision to ban travellers under 12 from flying first class in their A380 or 747 fleet. However, infants are still permitted in the business class cabin, which has the capacity for six cot bassinets.

One of India’s largest airlines, IndiGo, saw the appeal of a baby-free cabin class, blocking travellers under 12 from booking seats in rows 1 to 4 and 11 to 14. The airline said the zones were “created for business travellers who prefer to use the quiet time to do their work.”

Japan Airlines courted controversy in 2019 by allowing passengers to choose seat selection away from babies under 2 years old.

Although not a baby-free cabin area, passengers were able to see where infants were booked to fly, when choosing their seat and avoid the noise.

- With additional AP reporting