A study has revealed that parents find Scottish airports the most family friendly, with Edinburgh being rated the best in the UK, followed closely by Glasgow.
As part of the study, Skyscanner asked parents to rate airport facilities for children allowing them to establish which airports best catered for families.
Airports were rated on children’s play areas and facilities, food options for children and the efficiency of the security process.
Edinburgh Airport – which caters for more than 9million passengers each year – was praised for its family friendly restaurants, which provide a wide choice of food.
Parents recommended the airport for its runway viewing areas and its accessibility, whereas Glasgow International was rated highly for the variety of children’s play areas.
Mary Porter, Skyscanner’s family expert said: “We conducted this study following a consumer survey last year which saw 59 per cent of people state that UK airports failed to cater for families”.
Liverpool and Manchester Airports were ranked third and fourth in the survey complied of parents, and Gatwick followed in fifth place.
However the UK’s busiest airport Gatwick – which caters for more than 69 million passengers each year – only came in at 10th place.
The airport was criticised for the lack of children’s play areas, small seatings areas and overcrowding.
Birmingham Airport was ranked 7th place after 45 per cent of families travelling through the hub claimed the process was ‘too long.’
She added: “It is encouraging that several airports across the UK are now well prepared for family travellers and no airport scored less than six marks out of a possible 10”.
It is no wonder that young children who have already experienced long queues and little entertainment at the airport are then prone to having meltdowns by the time they board the aircraft.
“By catering better for them at the airport, the on board experience could be far less stressful for families and in turn more enjoyable for all passengers”.
Article by Charlotte Greenhalgh
