Airlines under pressure to consider 'child-free' zones

Airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Emirates are being urged to consider child-free zones on aeroplanes - and even child-free flights altogether - after a survey of business class passengers revealed that children were considered the biggest irritant of all.

Some 74 per cent of all business class passengers get annoyed by children running into their section or making a noise, said the research, which was carried out for the Business Travel & Meetings show taking place in London next week.

Following the recent furore over a woman who claimed a baby's screaming made her ears bleed on a Qantas flight, a separate poll carried out by cheap flights comparison site Skyscanner recently revealed that 59% of travellers would like a 'families only' section onboard flights.

Not surprisingly, non-parents particularly liked the idea, with 68% voting in favour - but less than a third of parents surveyed were in agreement.

Alternative suggestions put forward by Skyscanner users to solve the problem of noisy children on flights included: the provision of a baby nursery, only allowing well-behaved children to travel, and in a less sympathetic vein, one user said 'children should go in the hold'.

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