Legalfly - when children fly alone

From what age children can fly alone

You should never let young children travel alone. If your child is between 5 and 11 years old, you can put them on the plane alone under certain circumstances. Either provide your child with an underage companion from the age of 12 or use the childcare service that some airlines offer for underage children. Lufthansa offers such a service. The company looks after up to 70,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17 traveling alone each year. The care service makes it its business to look after the child before and during the flight and to hand it over to the person picking it up at the destination airport. Lufthansa charges additional costs for accompanying small passengers. For flight routes within Germany and in Europe, the additional support measures cost around 60 euros. For intercontinental flights, a flat rate of 100 euros per route is provided.

Rules for children traveling alone vary between airlines

You should find out in advance about the legal provisions of the airline that your child is flying with. Not every airline offers childcare services for minors. However, the price for on-board support is identical for almost all airlines. The price ranges from 50 to about 120 euros, with about 70 to 80 percent of the regular ticket price as a guide.

At Condor, five-year-old children are only allowed to travel if accompanied by a parent, an adult or a sibling over the age of 16. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 can use the airline’s childcare service use.
The airline TUIfly has even stricter regulations for minors traveling alone. It allows children under the age of 12 to fly only with an accompanying person over the age of 16. In exceptional cases, the company offers a childcare service for small children from the age of five.
Eurowings also offers the children comprehensive care. The employees give against the corresponding fee on all domestic German flights and selected flights to Austria and Switzerland on the Children’s eight. For this additional service, Eurowings charges the parents a fee of 50 euros per flight route.
The low budget airline Ryanair does not allow children under the age of 16 to fly alone in one of their aircraft and does not offer childcare.
At easyJet and British Airways, your child can fly alone at the age of 14. All children under the age of 14 must You one Set aside a companion who is at least 16 years old. easyJet does not look after your child traveling alone, but British Airways does.

Follow the necessary formalities so that your child can fly alone

Before you actually book, you must specify the child traveling alone and fill out a corresponding childcare form. Your child must have all other important forms clearly visible at the airport. This includes the valid ID card, boarding card and booking confirmation, passport and other important documents. At check-in, the respective carrier hangs a clearly visible bag in signal colors for the child, in which all important travel documents are kept.