Charges for passengers wishing to select their seats could be outlawed under a further proposal from the US government.

It is currently common practice for airlines, especially Low-Cost Carriers to charge for anything other than a randomly allocated seat. However, this is an ancillary revenue that the current administration describes as a ‘junk fee’.

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The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposed rule would require airlines to seat parents next to their young children for free when adjacent seating is available at booking.

“Many airlines still don’t guarantee family seating, which means parents wonder if they’ll have to pay extra just to be seated with their young child. Flying with children is already complicated enough without having to worry about that,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The proposition is not new. In 2023, President Biden called on Congress to ban family seating fees in his State of the Union address. Secretary Buttigieg then pressed the ten largest airlines to voluntarily ban these fees, four airlines – Alaska, American, Frontier, and JetBlue have done so.