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Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with their children

11 June 2026 at 07:59

Budget airline describes inquiry as ‘bogus’ as watchdog says it is only large carrier flying from UK to impose charge

Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, Ryanair, is facing an investigation over the mandatory fee it charges a parent to sit with their child.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the Irish carrier’s terms and conditions require at least one parent to sit with their children, including those with disabilities, and bills them about £8 a flight to do so.

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© Photograph: Holger Burmeister/Alamy

© Photograph: Holger Burmeister/Alamy

© Photograph: Holger Burmeister/Alamy

Air passengers ‘risking lives by grabbing bags and filming in emergencies’

Fines may be needed to deter travellers from retrieving hand luggage, says official from airlines body Iata

Air passengers are increasingly putting lives at risk by filming emergencies and retrieving bags instead of evacuating planes, industry experts have said, with some suggesting fines could be needed.

Passenger aircraft are designed to be fully evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency – but people reaching for hand luggage can significantly increase that time, blocking exits and aisles as well as damaging slides or causing injury.

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© Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy

© Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy

© Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy

France and Germany abandon joint project to build European fighter jet

Paris and Berlin conclude firms involved unable to agree on way forward in blow to Europe’s common defence push

France and Germany have concluded that the companies involved in building a joint fighter jet will not be able to reach an agreement and have abandoned the project, officials in Berlin have said in a blow to Europe’s common defence efforts.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had “reached the shared assessment that the companies will not be able to come together”, an official told Agence France-Presse. “They acknowledge this reality.”

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© Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

© Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

© Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

Aviation industry looks skywards as leaders fly in for Rio summit

Oil tankers may be stuck behind strait of Hormuz, but holding the Iata AGM in Brazil defies warnings of impending shortages

Nothing says jet fuel crisis, as one prospective attender put it, like flying everyone to Rio de Janeiro. Aviation leaders will converge in Brazil this weekend for the Iata AGM, the annual global airline summit, with the industry still, for the most part, looking resolutely skyward.

The oil tankers may still be stuck behind the strait of Hormuz as the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran flickers on, but for now, airlines continue to defy dire warnings of impending shortages which had stoked fears of a summer of chaos for European holidaymakers.

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© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

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