Airline Announces Plan to Trial an Adults-Only Zone

People love to complain about babies on planes. Those complaints have apparently not fallen on deaf ears.

Turkish-Dutch airline Corendon has announced that, starting in November, it will be testing an “Only Adult zone” on flights between Amsterdam and Curaçao, per a press release. The zone “is intended for travelers traveling without children and for business travelers who want to work in a quiet environment.”

Further, the release notes, it is meant to be viewed as a positive for parents with children, too: “They don’t have to worry as much about possible reactions from fellow passengers if their child is a bit busier or cries.” Which actually isn’t the shit end of the stick for parents, given the social media-fueled backlash they’ve been subjected to over the past few years (e.g., the grown man who threw a nearly four-minute-long tantrum on a Southwest flight, yelling, “Why is the baby yelling? I’m not screaming. Want me to scream? I’ll fucking scream. Please stop the baby.”).

The Only Adult zone will reportedly be set up in the front section of the aircraft and consist of nine XL seats with extra legroom, as well as 93 standard seats. The zone will be physically separated from the rest of the aircraft by means of walls and curtains, creating a “shielded environment that contributes to a calm and relaxed flight.”

Of course, if you want to fly sans baby seatmates, it’ll cost you. A seat reservation in the Only Adult area will cost an additional €45, or around $49, per single journey, while an XL seat will cost €100 extra, or about $107, each way. It will be accessible only to passengers aged 16 and over.

“We are also the first Dutch airline to introduce the Only Adult zone, because we try to appeal to travelers looking for some extra peace of mind during their flight,” said Atilay Uslu, founder of Corendon. “We also believe this can have a positive effect on parents traveling with small children. They can enjoy the flight without worrying if their children make more noise.”

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And I’m sure it will be a success on all fronts. There will never be a shortage of travelers looking for any semblance of an upgrade they can get their hands on. But, for its part, the “Should babies be allowed on airplanes?” argument — the one that surely inspired a section of an aircraft dedicated entirely to adults — is a tired one. There is no one whose overall inflight experience is devastated faster, and more fully, than the parent of a crying baby.

Last year Gilbert Ott of God Save the Points wrote a piece about whether or not children should be allowed to fly in first class that really resonated with me. “Neither situation is all that pleasant for anyone involved,” Ott, who cops to often traveling with his young daughter in first class, wrote. “But I think this is where the important distinction is. It’s not fun for parents, the child, or for you. If the parents or the kids are trying to remedy the situation, have some empathy.”

“When the parents are not trying, that’s a different story,” he added. And while it is an important differentiator, the fact is — whichever way you slice it — babies aren’t going away (that would be an exponentially bigger issue). So, yes, have a little empathy. Though, if you can’t manage that, you can go ahead and snag yourself a ticket in Corendon’s Only Adult zone.