Should Airlines End Lap Children Policies?

I’ve encouraged parents with children under age two to travel as much as possible. Why? Because kids don’t require their own seats on many U.S. domestic flights (and some international flights) until they turn two years old.

As long as they don’t take up a seat and can sit in the lap of a responsible adult (i.e., a parent, guardian, another family member, etc.), kiddos can fly free until they’re two.

But now there’s a renewed effort to ban lap children on U.S. airlines. An uptick in recent incidents involving injuries caused by turbulence seems to be the impetus for the Association of Flight Attendants’ (AFA-CWA) new push for all passengers to have their own seats.

Thirty-six passengers sustained injuries during a Hawaiian Airlines flight that experienced significant turbulence during December 2022. A few weeks later, several passengers were injured when a Lufthansa flight experienced heavy turbulence. A private plane’s passenger died when their plane encountered severe turbulence. (Business Insider tells us climate change is causing the increased turbulence.)

FAA Rules vs. Recommendations

As Paddle Your Own Kanoo’s Mateusz Maszczynski notes, “Unlike many international regulators, the FAA prohibits the use of an infant lap belt that goes around the infant and attaches to the seatbelt of their parent or guardian. The FAA says studies show that infant lap belts can cause undue stress in the event of a sudden deceleration but that leaves parents having to hold onto tight to their child in the event of severe turbulence.”

That said, the FAA writes specifically states, “The safest place for your child under the age of two on a U.S. airplane is in approved child restraint system (CRS) or device, not in your lap. Your arms aren’t capable of holding your in-lap child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence, which is the number one cause of pediatric injuries on an airplane. (Bold mine.)

The FAA strongly urges you to secure your child in an approved CRS or other approved device for the entirety of your flight.”

We used a CRS for our daughter shortly after she turned two when we had to purchase a seat for her. Before that, she was on our laps. (And now I kind of feel like an awful parent.)

So, what’s the solution?

If Sarah Nelson’s union has its way, travelers flying with kids under two will need to purchase a ticket for those children and secure them in their own restraints. (Is buybuy BABY somehow tight with the flight attendants union?)

I think many parents would say, I’ll pay anything for my kid to be safe! But when confronted with the prospect of buying another airfare and approved child restraint device (if a car seat doesn’t cut it), I foresee a bunch of folks saying Let’s not get dramatic here and starting making us spend more money…

I admit it: I figured the chance of our daughter — or anyone — sustaining injuries during our flights was very remote. (And, I believe, it still is.) So, we took our daughter around the country as a lap child.

Would airlines offer discounts for seats occupied by a child under two? How would that be enforced?

Not All Kids Will Be in Seats

Please allow me to play Devil’s advocate for a minute.

Some kids don’t do well sitting for long durations in plane seats. They want to traipse up and down the aisle — either walking on their own or in the arms of a parent. They want to sit on a parent’s lap for physical and/or emotional comfort. Feeding babies is — in our opinion — much easier while cradling the infant.

So, unless passengers are warned ahead of time that ugly turbulence is coming, I don’t know of a perfect solution to solving injuries. One would think the pilots and air traffic control would try to work a way around the issue. (But I’m a points, miles, and travel blogger — not a pilot or ATC. What do I know?)

If a parent holds an infant while the little tyke is feeding, the kid’s own seat and restraint system won’t do a darn bit of good if a flight suddenly drops or encounters otherwise bumpy air.

And, pray tell, what good would a kid’s own seat and restraining device do to prevent them from being struck by projectiles? I feel that holding my child helps me shield her from such items as flying phones, tablets, and shoes.

But I agree that kids in child restraints could reduce injuries to our little ones.

Final Approach

Recent high-profile incidents during which passengers were injured because of severe turbulence are behind an Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) push to ban lap children. Kids under two would need their own seats and be securely fastened into some kind of restraint system.

But will that be enough to truly make everyone safer?

The Comments section is below. Let’s hear your thoughts. (Keep it clean and respectful! Also, our schedule is a little whacky this week; please don’t take offense if your comment takes a while to show up on the blog.)