European Airline Introduces A Kid-Free Zone On Transatlantic Flight

Flying with kids is not for the feint of heart. Not only do you have to deal with their potential anxiety and fear and irritation, you know that there are other passengers who are ready to be annoyed with you no matter what you do. But now, people who are not into flying with kids might just be in luck; one European airline is banking on the idea that there will be a whole lot of passengers who would pay extra for an adults-only flight.

Starting in November, Turkish-Dutch company Corendon Airlines is planning to offer child-free areas on long haul flights between Amsterdam and Curacao, which takes around 10 hours. In a press release, the airline announced it would set aside 93 regular seats and nine extra legroom seats at the front of its Airbus A350 planes for passengers who do not want to be seated near young children. The first 12 rows of flights will follow a strict policy of only allowing passengers 16 years of age and up. These flights have 432 seats in total and children are allowed to sit at the back of the plane, but there will be a curtain or a wall separating them from the adults-only area, which I assume will include a disco ball and dancing as befits its adults-only status.

Corendon Airlines explained in a statement on their website that the adult-only section “is intended for travelers traveling without children and for business travelers who want to work in a quiet environment,” but they think this separation will be a benefit for parents and children as well. “At the same time, the introduction of the Only Adult zone also has a positive effect for parents with children,” their statement read. “They don't have to worry as much about possible reactions from fellow passengers if their child is a bit busier or cries.”

The luxury of being able to fly for 10 hours in child-free zones does come at a cost, although some might not find it too exorbitant. The regular seats cost an extra 45 euros while the adults-only seats with extra legroom are 100 euros more than the regular cost.

Many have questioned whether the curtain or even wall of a child-free section would truly be able to insulate adult riders from the sounds of fussy children. One Twitter user compared it to the “Smoking” and “Non-Smoking” sections of restaurants; for those of you too young to remember, it did not make much of a difference since smoke, like sound, tends to waft. But others welcomed the news.

“I would absolutely pay extra,” tweeted @JoemamaServus in response to the announcement.

“This would be awesome,” tweeted @EsslingerKeri, cheekily. “My kids who quietly play on their Nintendo switches and I can sit away from the people that talk loud enough for everyone to hear them the entire flight.

Corendon Airlines is not actually the first to test the concept of child-free flights. Scoot, a low-cost airline based in Singapore, starting offering flights in 2021 where children under the age of 12 are “banned,” and in 2012 Malaysia Airlines tried to make the upper deck of their economy section child-free zones as well. This didn’t last long, as the airline started seating families in that area if they couldn’t find room for them anywhere else.