Virgin Atlantic Is The Most Child-Friendly Airline

Virgin Atlantic has been voted the most child-friendly airline in a poll conducted by Rough Guides. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic came top in a poll with 36% of voters in favour of the airline over their rivals British Airways who came a close second with 32%. However, it was the wretched performance of some of the leading low cost airlines which has caused more controversy.

Bitter cheap flights rivals easyJet and Ryanair received only 8% of the vote between them with 6% and 2% respectively. Although, the result will not come as a surprise for either of the budget flights providers, both of whom charge passengers per item of luggage with strict weight limits in place – a factor which goes against a parent’s greatest concern when travelling with children, according to the same survey, which is packing and carrying everything that they need.

The author of the new publication ‘The Rough Guide to Travel with Babies and Young Children’, Fawzia Rasheed de Francisco believes that the choice of airlines for family holidays is an important decision to make:

“Aside from baggage restrictions, budget airlines tend to be allocated inconvenient gates in airports, involving long walking distances, negotiating stairs and buses etc – tough going with small children.
There’s also the fact that budget airlines make it hard, if not impossible, to changes plans without buying new tickets; when you factor the cost implications for a whole family, the so-called budget tickets can work out to be more expansive in the long run.”

However, despite the criticism of low cost airlines, it is worth noting that nearly half of all respondents claimed their children had travelled far more extensively than they had at the same age, a factor down in no small part due to the fast growth of cheap flights from easyJet and Ryanair.