UK regulator investigates Ryanair over child seat fees

When does an optional seat charge become a penalty on basic family travel? Britain’s competition watchdog moved to test that line as it opened an investigation into Ryanair’s policy for parents travelling with young children, including children with disabilities.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it launched the probe on 11 June 2026 and is examining whether Ryanair’s terms and conditions unfairly force families to pay for the airline’s own obligations. The regulator said Ryanair requires at least one parent to sit with children aged 2 to 11 through a “mandatory family seat” that typically costs around £8 each way, with the fee applied to both outbound and return flights across most of the carrier’s UK routes.

The CMA said it will look at whether the charge amounts to an unfair contract term under consumer law and whether the fee is being drip-priced during booking rather than shown clearly in the total upfront fare. Under UK consumer rules, unavoidable charges should be presented at the outset, not added late in the purchase process when families have already committed to travel plans.

The regulator also said it is examining whether Ryanair is using the fee to cover child-safety and disability-related obligations that airlines are required to meet under aviation rules. In the CMA’s view, the policy affects not just ordinary family bookings but also children with disabilities, raising broader questions about how airlines allocate responsibility when parents are trying to sit beside their child.

The watchdog said Ryanair is the only major airline flying out of the UK to impose this charge. Other carriers either seat children with a parent or guardian free of charge or automatically allocate seats together during booking. Ryanair’s website refers to “Free reserved seats for kids under 12”, but the CMA said parents and guardians still have to pay a booking fee to access those seats.

Ryanair dismissed the probe as “bogus” and said its family seating policy fully complies with relevant laws and regulations. The airline said it does not charge any fee for children to sit beside a parent or accompanying adult, and said adults travelling with children pay for one reserved seat while up to four children on the same booking can have reserved seats beside them free of charge. The CMA said it was at the beginning of its investigation and had reached no conclusions on whether Ryanair had broken the law.