New rules tough on families

By DR SARAH FARQUHAR

Families with young children are disadvantaged by new airline safety rules and changes in child fares. On domestic flights toddlers now need to occupy a seat of their own and use an adult seat belt.

This requirement of both the major airlines brings to the forefront issues of child safety, accessibility of air travel for children and affordability for parents. It is a move that both Air New Zealand and Ansett claim is designed to enable more families to travel.

If you ask families with children, they will say the changes are a considerable disincentive to go by air. Both airlines have lowered the age for child airfares from four to two years. Children up to four have until now been able to travel free if not occupying a seat. The airlines also now require children over 11 to pay adult fares. Previously, the limit was 14.

Take a family of two parents with two preschoolers aged two and three and a half. The total cost of travelling between Auckland and Wellington return for this family on the cheapest special fare has increased from $398 to $597.

It could also be harder for families to get the cheaper rate for travel at the time that suits them best. Access to special fares will depend on the availability of four seats now for this family, not two.

I travel regularly around New Zealand and my airfare is usually paid for by whoever is sponsoring my visit. I am now faced with either saying sorry, I cannot accept your invitation unless you also pay my infants' fare, or pay the extra myself.

My children have benefited tremendously from being able to travel with me as toddlers. They have learned much about planes and are very confident travellers. A range of experiences best enhances children's learning in the early years. It is a shame that the airlines are now making it more restrictive for young children to have the opportunity of flight travel.

I like to take my two-year-old with me and she loves it. I miss her enormously otherwise, and - unlike my older child - she doesn't have a group of friends to stay happilywith when I am away. I know of other professional parents who value time with their children and would find childcare arrangements difficult to arrange.

On two flights recently I was told by cabin crew to put my two-year-old back on my knee after she had clambered into an unoccupied seat. They considered that because of her small size she was not safe sitting on her own using an adult lap belt.

In the past month I have asked various cabin crew and staff at check-in counters if they knew that parents were going to be asked to pay for a seat for their toddler. Their reactions ranged from a focus on cost - "That can't be true, that's unfair on parents"- to the emotional wellbeing and safety of youngsters: "But surely your little one will still be able to sit on your knee."

If these are the spontaneous reactions of staff who are "trained to know what to do," then airline management should be worried about the extra stress it will place on staff.

They will be faced with passengers who are disgruntled about having to pay for an extra seat they don't really need for a short journey, hassled after lugging a child-seat onto the plane to make sure their toddler is safely strapped in, stressed because it will be harder to keep their young children under control and stop little fingers playing with the seat-belt buckle just as the flight is taking off or landing, and worried about their flight being late because they need to get home by the time arranged with the caregiver.

At the very least the airlines should be providing safety-approved child-seats on flights for the fare-paying two to four-year-olds. The airlines should be explaining in their advertising that the new, lower kids' fares are not cheaper for all children.

More importantly, the emotional and safety costs for young children, parents who travel regularly as part of their work, and families, have been ignored.

* Dr Sarah Farquhar, a mother of two young children, is coordinator of the New Zealand Early Childhood Research Network and editor of www.childforum.com. Her email is Sarah@childforum.com
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