Published: Friday June 15, 2012 MYT 11:39:00 AM

Survey: 12% of parents find cabin crew unsympathetic to children

KUALA LUMPUR: One in 10 parents find it difficult to get any sympathy from the cabin crew in response to their children's needs, according to a survey by international flight comparison site Skyscanner.

The survey was done after a cabin crew demanded a father to remove his three-year-old son from an Alaska Airlines plane after the toddler was deemed too disruptive to fly last week.

The toddler at the centre of the incident first became upset when he was forced to switch off the reading device his father had given him to keep him busy.

Many parents in the survey sympathised with this situation, with over a third having endured their child having a "meltdown" on an aircraft.

Some 13% of the respondents stated that their children too have become upset after abruptly being told to switch off electronic devices by the cabin crew with no explanation or understanding of why.

The unhappy child then refused to sit upright with his seatbelt fastened; something one in four of the parents surveyed have also experienced.

The child's parents were finally told they had to disembark the aircraft despite having his seatbelt fastened, because he wouldn't sit upright.

"There can be some challenges when flying with young children as they are too young to understand why they are being told to do certain things, but this can be made less stressful for parents if cabin crew staff can be more patient and understanding during these times," Skyscanner's Mary Porter said.

"Of course, there are some safety requirements that must be met by every passenger whatever their age.

"However, if cabin crew were specifically trained to understand the needs of families better and able to assist with the youngest of airline passengers, the experience could be stress-free for everyone and many of these negative experiences could be completely avoided," she added.

"Families contribute a huge amount to the profit of airlines and everything should be done to make this a more positive experience."

Skyscanner is a leading travel search site providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines. - Bernama.

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