The measure comes just weeks after the airline was the target of an investigation for charging parents to travel seated next to their minor children.
Passengers traveling with children and choosing not to reserve paid seats will automatically receive seats allocated free of charge after checking in for their flight, as is the case with most European airlines.
According to him, families who choose this option should, in most cases, be accommodated in the rear of the cabin, as seats in the front rows and other more popular areas are usually reserved in advance by passengers who pay for seat selection.
Until now, the company has required adults traveling with children ages 2 to 11 to reserve and pay for at least one seat, designated as “mandatory family place“.This option ensured that children were seated next to adults, without allowing the free assignment of adjacent seats.
The executive chairman of Ryanair, Michael O’Learyaccused the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of being “committed” to forcing the airline to adopt a seating policy that is “less transparent and less favorable to consumers”, simply because it is the practice followed by the majority of airlines.
“We will reluctantly adapt to this industry standard as we do not want to waste time explaining to misguided regulators how poorly they understand what is in the best interests of UK and European consumers.”
This change comes as the CMA begins this month to determine whether the policy previously applied by Ryanair breached consumer protection rules.
The CMA further stated that it believed that Ryanair was the only major airline operating from the UK to impose this charge. The airline, however, guaranteed that the change will not impact your revenue.
