Government to Investigate Splitting Up Families on Flights

Airlines are facing the possibility of an investigation into the practice of charging extra for families who want to sit together on board flights

The Government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation is being launched this week to “identify and address any areas where clearer guidelines and regulation is needed” to govern the use of data and data-enabled technologies.

Digital Minister Margot James last week condemned the software as “a very cynical, exploitative means . . . to hoodwink the general public”.

She told a Parliamentary communications committee: “Some airlines have set an algorithm to identify passengers of the same surname travelling together. They’ve had the temerity to split the passengers up, and when the family want to travel together they are charged more.”

The Civil Aviation Authority is also investigating how seats are allocated by airlines flying out of the UK. Officials are understood to have written to large carriers asking how their algorithms work, particularly when it comes to separating passengers travelling together, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

The aviation regulator last month disclosed that customers were wasting up to £175 million a year on unnecessary allocated seating fees.

Almost half (45 per cent) of people who pay to sit next to their companions would be placed together anyway, the regulator claimed.

The newspaper recently revealed how some airlines are charging couples and families extra to ensure they can sit together.

In one case, a couple on a transatlantic flight were automatically allocated seats several rows apart and had to pay more than £100 to be able to sit together. The seat they paid extra for had been unoccupied anyway.

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