Travellers seeking a more peaceful flight may soon have the option to
pay a premium to avoid sitting near babies and children during flights.
Corendon Airlines, a Turkish carrier, has announced plans to introduce
an adults-only zone on its flights between Amsterdam and Curaçao,
commencing in November.
This initiative aims to provide travellers without children a quieter
environment, while parents can travel without worrying about their kids
causing disruptions to fellow passengers.
The airline's Airbus A350 jets, accommodating 432 seats, will feature
an adults-only section comprising 93 regular seats and nine
extra-legroom seats at the front of the plane. A designated wall or
curtain will segregate this section from the rest of the cabin. Corendon
Airlines will impose an additional reservation fee for the no-kids
zone, starting at US$49 and escalating to US$109 for an extra-legroom
seat.
Addressing concerns about the effectiveness of the concept, travel
experts weighed in. Brett Snyder, the author of the Cranky Flier blog
and a travel agency operator, suggested that leisure travellers might
find value in paying extra for a child-free environment. However, he
noted that noise from the rear of the adult zone could still be audible,
reminiscent of the past experience of sitting in the last row of the
nonsmoking section and encountering residual smoke.
Scott Keyes, founder of the flight-search site Going, opined that the
low extra fee could attract a substantial customer base and generate
valuable publicity for Corendon Airlines as a relatively lesser-known
carrier. The approach is not unprecedented, with Singapore's low-cost
airline Scoot selling seats in a section restricted to passengers aged
12 and above.
While this adults-only zone may be a novel offering, it taps into a
growing trend of airlines exploring creative strategies to enhance the
travel experience for diverse passenger preferences. As the airline
industry evolves, Corendon's initiative raises questions about the
extent to which travellers are willing to pay for a quieter journey,
ultimately challenging traditional cabin configurations.