The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed airlines to ensure that children up to 12 years old are seated with their parents during flights. If the parents' seats are not together, the child should be given a seat next to one of them. The DGCA also emphasized that if parents are not traveling, the child should be seated with an accompanying adult.

The DGCA's directive comes in response to numerous complaints about children traveling with their parents or guardians being assigned seats apart from them. This directive applies only if the child and parent share the same PNR number. The complaint was about seats being allotted to those arriving without pre-booking the seats at the airport during check-in.

The DGCA clarified that airlines should not impose additional charges for seating children with their parents. Similar complaints about assigning single seats to children have been raised in other countries, including the United States, prompting government intervention.

Previously, airlines used to charge extra for seat selection, and those who opted out were assigned seats based on the airlines’ discretion.