Ryanair to force families to pay for seat allocation

Airline risks angering customers after introducing £8 compulsory fee for adults travelling with children

Budget airline Ryanair has angered customers by announcing plans to introduce mandatory seat allocation fees for adults travelling with children under 12 years of age.

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The carrier says that the change in policy is designed to avoid families being split up on flights, and will come into effect on September 1 of this year.

Children's reservations will be free of charge under the new scheme.

The company said in a statement that it felt the policy was necessary as many parents were not choosing their seats in advance to keep them together with their kids. This was causing issues when boarding in having to reseat passengers.

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair's chief marketing officer, said the change will allow families to "fly safe in the knowledge that they are getting Europe's lowest air fares while ensuring they always sit with their children".

Ryanair has been criticised in the past for adding additional fees to passengers' fares, but its reputation in this regard has improved somewhat during the last 2 years, with the introduction of more lenient attitudes towards things like extra and oversized baggage.

The low cost airline said this week that it remained on course to post a record annual profit, thought to be in the region of £1.2bn for the year to March 2017.