Business class fliers want separate spaces for children

AIR TRAVEL:IT MIGHT raise the heckles of many families and probably fall foul of human rights legislation, but the majority of business class passengers want children to be segregated on aircraft.

Business class passengers, surveyed by the flight comparison website skyscanner, identified screaming children as the biggest annoyance on flights.

Some 74 per cent of all business class passengers get annoyed by children on flights, the research for the Business Travel Meetings Show taking place in London next weekend found.

Over half of them wanted to see a “families-only” section on flights where screaming children and their parents could be separated from business class passengers.

Skyscanner spokeswoman Mary Porter said a solution to the problem might be a premium adults-only section which business class passengers could pay to upgrade to and get away from children. Such a provision would probably only work on longhaul flights.

Screaming children are not just an annoyance for passengers, but can be a mortifying experience for a child’s parents.

A wider survey carried out by the same company last year found 59 per cent of passengers want segregated flights and 20 per cent want children banned from some flights altogether. Last year Qantas settled out of court with a 67-year-old woman who complained that a three-year-old child screamed so loud on a flight that it damaged her hearing.