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SEVERAL new passenger rights are set to come into force across the UK and Europe.

It’s good news for Brits as there are new passenger rights coming into force that could save families hundreds.

From parents being allowed to sit with their child for no extra cost to new luggage rules, travellers won’t have to fork out as much for hidden extra costs.

Here’s a rundown of all the new rules coming into force across the UK and Europe:

Sitting with children

Under the new rules, airlines can no longer charge for certain extras including parents wanting to sit with their child.

According to the Government, a parent and child are charged up to £104 on a return journey for sitting together.

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Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “Charging parents just to sit with their children is a rip-off, plain and simple.”

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Parents should not have to feel the pinch just to sit next to their child on a flight, or for amending a simple booking error.

“That’s why we’re scrapping these unnecessary charges for all airlines.

“Another everyday fix to help put money back in people’s pockets and give households more breathing room.”

Booking error corrections

Another rule being introduced means that passengers will have greater flexibility to correct name errors on bookings for free.

If you needed to correct something on your booking before, such as a spelling mistake in your name, then it could have cost you as much as £40 to change.

Andy Burnham added: “Being hit with a hefty fee for a simple spelling mistake on a booking form isn’t right.

“People are fed up with these little charges that add up, so I’m putting a stop to them.

“This is what our everyday fixes are all about.

“Giving people room to breathe by tackling the small irritations that catch people out, waste their time and cost them money.”

Luggage fees – Europe only

The EU is looking to make hand luggage free as part of a major overhaul of passenger rights.

Back in June, the European Parliament and EU member states agreed on new air passenger rules, which would include allowing passengers to have two pieces of hand luggage free of charge.

This would be one small personal item that usually fits under the seat in front of you and a larger cabin bag weighing up to 7kg.

The new rules are expected to come into force in October 2027 at the earliest.

However, for Brits, the rules won’t apply on outbound journeys – say from London to Majorca, in Spain.

It will apply to UK passengers on their return leg, though from an EU country, so theoretically if you wanted to do lots of shopping abroad you won’t have to pay for that extra case on the way back home.

Airlines, such as easyJet, are currently reviewing their luggage rules though and the UK Government could also make the same rule in the future.

With easyJet for example, if you want a cabin bag measuring up to 56 x 45 x 25cm, you’ll need to pay extra for it and the price varies depending on demand, the route, your flight date and the time of booking.

Though if you get to the gate and haven’t paid for a cabin bag but have one with you, you will be charged £60.

For Ryanair, if you want a cabin bag measuring up to 55 x 40 x 20cm, then it will cost you between £12 and £36 at the time of booking, or between £20 and £60 when at the airport.

For a family of four, this could cost as much as an additional £240 per way, so £480 per return flight.

Ryanair gave an update on Friday morning

Budget carrier Ryanair has issued an update, confirming that it cancelled 1,000 flights.

It partly attributed the recent “collapse” of Britain’s air traffic control system for the scrapping more than 1,000 flights in September. The Irish airline said the cancellations stemmed from two separate air traffic control (ATC) failures within a fortnight of one another last month, alongside ATC strikes in Belgium and widespread disruption across Europe caused by volcanic ash clouds from eruptions at Mount Etna.

The head of Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats), Martin Rolfe, has faced mounting calls to quit following a string of air traffic failures that led to thousands of flight cancellations across the industry last month, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

The most recent incident was triggered by a “connectivity issue” at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, which was unrelated to an ATC software fault on September 8 that sparked widespread travel chaos.

Ryanair has been among those demanding Mr Rolfe’s resignation, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has arranged a meeting with Nats chairman Sir Warren East, the former chief executive of Rolls-Royce, in the coming weeks to address the ongoing issues.

Latest Ryanair figures

Ryanair’s most recent traffic statistics revealed the airline operated over 111,700 flights last month, carrying 20.1 million passengers, a rise of 4% year on year. Wizz Air also released passenger data showing a 24% increase year on year in passengers flown last month, reaching 7.78 million, with capacity up 25.3%.

Yet Wizz announced recently it would slash its flight schedule by 5% over the second half of 2026 owing to broader Iran war pressures on the travel sector and spiralling fuel costs.

Following the latest disruption, easyJet said it “calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems” and Jet2 said customers and airlines need “action, accountability and proper resilience”.

Calls to resign

On September 21, chief operations officer for Ryanair Neal McMahon said: “Martin Rolfe has presided over repeated system failures, repeated passenger disruption and repeated failures to deliver an effective back-up system.

“Enough is enough. Martin Rolfe should resign today.”

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines UK, said ATC was “critical national infrastructure” which “must be resilient enough to keep people moving”.

He added: “Yet another Nats failure is causing delays and disruption for passengers and airlines alike, and comes just days after its report into the most recent major outage. Passengers and airlines deserve better and the independent CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) report, together with the forthcoming Civil Aviation Bill, must address the underlying weaknesses in the system so that these failures stop happening.”

Holidaymakers will also be given greater flexibility to correct simple name errors including spelling mistakes on bookings for free – rather than facing charges

Rip-off airline charges including hidden fees for parents to sit next to children under 14 will be banned under government plans.

Holidaymakers will also be given greater flexibility to correct simple name errors including spelling mistakes on bookings for free – rather than facing charges.

Under the proposals unveiled today, airlines will be required to seat children under the age of 14 with a parent or adult accompanying them free of charge.

Andy Burnham said: “Charging parents just to sit with their children is a rip-off, plain and simple. And being hit with a hefty fee for a simple spelling mistake on a booking form isn’t right either.

“People are fed up with these little charges that add up, so I’m putting a stop to them. This is what our everyday fixes are all about. Giving people room to breathe by tackling the small irritations that catch people out, waste their time and cost them money.”

Earlier this year the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) investigated budget airline Ryanair over such charges costing around £8 each way.

Under the airline’s old policy parents had to book a “mandatory family seat” to sit with their children aged 2-11 in order to secure a seat when they flew.

But Ryanair – which the CMA said was the only major operator to charge such a fee – changed its policy in June with kids up to the age of 11 seated next to their parents free of charge.

It’s website now states: “For safety reasons, children aged between 2 and 11 years must sit next to an accompanying adult, and infants (8 days to 23 months inclusive) must sit on an accompanying adult’s lap. Families may choose either to reserve seats or select free random allocation.

“If random allocation is selected, children will be seated next to an accompanying adult on the same reservation free of charge. Other adults and teens on the booking may be allocated seats separately.”

The government said that while some airlines already offer protections on fees, the reforms will guarantee the same rights for passengers – despite who they fly with.

British Airways policy already makes clear children up to the age of 12 will be seated for free. It states: “To ensure your family has the best seats when you fly, we recommend choosing yours in advance when you book. There may be an additional fee for this.

“If you don’t choose your seats in advance, we always do our best to seat your family together based on flight seat availability. This may mean that you’ll be seated in adjacent rows or across the aisle. All children under 12 will be seated with an accompanying adult.”

EasyJet’s policy adds:”If you leave it to the last minute it’s possible that there may not be enough seats left for us to seat your family next to each other.

“We’ll still make sure each child under 12 is seated close to an adult on your booking. However we may only be able to arrange this at the airport or on board, which can cause delays for you and other passengers, and not everyone may be seated together.”

The government said the move was the latest in the PM’s attempts to give people breathing space, including action already unveiled on costly subscription traps and school uniform rip-offs.

Heidi Alexander, Transport Secretary, said: “Parents should not have to feel the pinch just to sit next to their child on a flight, or for amending a simple booking error. That’s why we’re scrapping these unnecessary charges for all airlines – another everyday fix to help put money back in people’s pockets and give households more breathing room.

“And everyone deserves to travel knowing their flight isn’t going to be disrupted by bad behaviour from a small minority. These common-sense reforms will make flying safer for staff and passengers and protect people from unnecessary charges, whoever they fly with.”

Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, added: “It’s clearly unfair to force parents and children as young as three to pay an extra fee just to sit together. Airlines that have separated families are putting profit ahead of passenger peace of mind.

“Which? has successfully pressured many airlines into dropping these fees over the past ten years. So it’s welcome to see the government taking firm action on this by outlawing these charges completely and finally putting an end to this rip off.

“It is also positive to see greater flexibility to amend simple mistakes, protecting consumers from unnecessary charges.”

EASYJET is set to strike tomorrow at several major airports in a popular European country.

EasyJet flight crew will walk out of airports across Portugal from tomorrow, with flights expected to be cancelled.

The airports include Lisbon, Porto and Faro.

The strike will run from October 2 to 6 and has been called by the SNPVAC union, which the airline’s cabin crew in Portugal belongs to.

Overall, it is estimated that the strike over the coming days could ground around 500 flights which includes 35 to and from the UK.

This includes two return flights and one outbound flight from London Southend Airport.

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EasyJet operates from a number of UK airports including Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, London Gatwick and London Luton.

The strike comes due to an ongoing dispute with the airline about pay, rostering and working conditions for cabin crew in Portugal.

Any travellers due to fly to or from Portugal during the strike dates are being advised to check their easyJet app or emails for updates.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese government has promised that there will be a minimum of one Lisbon to London and then London to Lisbon flight per day during the strike.

On the other hand, it appears that no UK flights to or from Faro or Porto remain protected.

The SNPVAC union has announced further walkouts later on in the year in December between 19–23.

A spokesperson for easyJet told Sun Travel: “We are extremely disappointed that the union representing our Portugal-based cabin crew has announced an industrial action from 2 to 6 October, despite our willingness to continue a constructive dialogue and reach an agreement to meet our employees’ requests and protect the sustainability of easyJet business in Portugal.

“We are sorry for the impact the unnecessary action will have on our customers and we are doing all we can to minimise disruption, including actioning some cancellations in advance to allow our customers to rearrange their travel plans.

“Customers whose flights are cancelled have been informed directly and offered options including a free transfer or a refund.

“We advise customers travelling to or from Portugal between 2 and 6 October to check the status of their flight via our Flight Tracker.”

ONE airline has scrapped two of its routes to New York for the winter season – including one from London.

As a result, there will just be one remaining transatlantic route from the UK.

Norse Atlantic Airways has removed its planned flights to New York from its winter schedule from both London Gatwick and Rome airports.

Data from OAG Schedules Analyser revealed that Norse had planned for 41,600 two-way seats on routes to New York (JFK) from London Gatwick and Rome Fiumicino Airport during the winter 2026-27 season.

Each was scheduled to operate as many as three-weekly flights.

The latest schedules reveal that these routes will continue through the rest of the summer season – but regular service will end from late October.

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On its website, the last date to fly from London Gatwick to or from New York City with Norse is on October 24.

Without these two routes, the only transatlantic service from Norse during the winter is between London Gatwick and Orlando.

Their withdrawal leaves Norse without New York service during the winter and sees London Gatwick-Orlando as its only scheduled transatlantic route during the season.

According to Aviation Weekly, the airline’s planned winter network has been reduced by around 105,500 seats.

The two New York routes account for about 83,200 of the seats removed.

From London, passengers with Norse can still fly to Bangkok, Phuket and Cape Town.

The airline also launched the Thailand service from Manchester Airport in November 2025 with one flight a week.

Due to the huge demand, this will increase to four times a week from December 5, 2026 to April 18, 2027.

Flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and start from £254 one way.

ONE airline has announced it is axing all flights from three UK airports next year.

It cited “high fuel costs” and “changing consumer demand” for the cancellations.

Turkish carrier Corendon Airlines will reduce its schedule for next summer which includes cutting the UK airports it serves from six to three.

It will stop flying to Antalya from Gatwick, Birmingham and Newcastle in 2027.

The airline increased its offerings with additional flights from the UK just last year.

Despite the reduction, Corendon Airlines will still fly to Antalya twice-weekly from Glasgow with three flights a week from both Manchester and London Stansted.

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The airline confirmed it will take a “disciplined approach to capacity for 2027 following a year shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, high fuel costs and changing consumer demand”.

UK country manager Matthew Carpenter said: “In response to a difficult trading year owing to the impact of the Iran conflict, we’ve therefore decided to reduce the number of UK airports we serve. 

“We have also decided to end some aircraft agreements, with a consequent reduction in the overall fleet, which has a natural impact on our UK schedule and capacity.

“This is a short-term reaction and we plan to review the trading conditions again in January and hope to re-introduce flights to Birmingham, Newcastle and Gatwick as soon as oil prices stabilise and trading conditions improve.”  

Corendon Airlines will continue flying to Crete from both London Gatwick and Manchester Airport.

The airline was first formed in 2004, and launched its first flight one year later.

In 2025, Corendon Airlines reportedly carried 10 million passengers a year across Europe.

A EUROPEAN airline that carries thousands of British passengers every week has filed for bankruptcy.

The travel company organises flights to the Baltic region from both London Gatwick and Aberdeen airport.

The national airline of Latvia, airBaltic, has had its bankruptcy protection approved in a move that hopes to cut mounting costs.

Around 4,000 British passengers fly on AirBaltic flights weekly, with the airline operating direct flights between London Gatwick and Riga, along with seasonal twice-weekly routes from Aberdeen to the capital.

The voluntary decision saw the carrier file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, later securing $405million in financial commitments from various financial groups.

Despite the filing, experts have warned passengers not to interpret bankruptcy as cancellation and to wait before considering changing bookings.

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Anton Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor, said: “Cancelling voluntarily could leave the passenger subject to the ticket’s normal restrictions, whereas waiting for the airline’s decision preserves their statutory rights if the service is later changed or cancelled.”

AirBaltic has confirmed that operations would continue as usual during the bankruptcy process, which is expected to finish by June 2027.

This includes scheduled flights, ticket sales, reservations and customer service, with all existing tickets, vouchers and credits remaining valid.

AirBaltic flies to over 70 destinations around the Baltics, including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East out of its main hub in Riga, Latvia.

The carrier is majority-owned by the Latvian government and has agreements with major international airlines such as Air France, KLM and Delta Airlines.

It currently operates a fleet of 54 aircraft, but announced a business plan in August to reduce its fleet to 36 planes to improve its financial stability.

AirBaltic, the national airline of Latvia, has filed fo Chatper 11 protection in New York. The airline currently operates direct services between London Gatwick and Riga, as well as twice-weekly seasonal Aberdeen to Riga service

AirBaltic has filed for bankruptcy, casting the airline’s future in serious doubt.

Latvia’s national airline filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York on 14 September as it seeks to restructure its debts.

AirBaltic currently operates direct services between London Gatwick and Riga, as well as twice-weekly seasonal Aberdeen to Riga service. These serve approximately 4,144 passengers each week, according to AirAdvisor.

Earlier this year, the airline announced it would launch flights from the UK to Lapland in December, offering five new routes to Kuusamo in Finnish Lapland from European airports, including services from London Gatwick and Manchester.

The airline plans to reduce its fleet from 54 aircraft to 36 by the end of 2026, while some staff members may also lose their jobs. CEO Erno Hilden has said that consultations are underway regarding workforce reductions, although no figure has been decided.

AirBaltic has faced a number of financial challenges since it took a €30 million (£26 million) state loan in April 2026, the company said in a statement, “including increased fuel costs arising from the crisis in the Middle East.”

Supervisory board chairman Andrejs Martinovs said in a written statement: “We have carefully assessed the restructuring options available to the company, with one priority in focus – to give airBaltic the best possible basis to continue operating and to build a sustainable financial structure. Under court supervision and with protection from creditor claims, this process provides a clear framework and timetable for reaching agreements with creditors, including aircraft lessors and other stakeholders. At the same time, it allows the company to continue operating.”

What does this mean for passengers?

If you have a flight booked with airBaltic, you shouldn’t panic. Passengers should not interpret the word ‘bankruptcy’ as meaning the airline has stopped flying and cancel valid bookings themselves – it has not cancelled any flights.

The airline has a commitment for €350 million (£300 million) in financing, subject to court approval, and insists that scheduled flights, bookings and customer services are continuing normally.

AirBaltic said flights would operate as scheduled during the court-supervised process, which it expects to finish by June next year.

Flights departing the UK fall under UK261. Riga to UK services are protected under EU passenger-rights rules because they depart from an EU airport. In either direction, a cancellation would normally allow passengers to choose between reimbursement and rerouting.

Anton Radchenko, Aviation Expert and CEO of AirAdvisor , said: “Chapter 11 is designed to give a company space to keep operating while it restructures, so I would not cancel a valid airBaltic booking when the airline is still flying and says the ticket remains valid. Cancelling voluntarily could leave the passenger subject to the ticket’s normal restrictions, whereas waiting for the airline’s decision preserves their statutory rights if the service is later changed or cancelled.

“I would use this moment to identify exactly what protects the booking. A direct flight is not usually ATOL protected, airline-failure insurance is not standard, and the practical fallback may depend on whether the passenger booked a genuine package, paid directly by credit card or can make a chargeback claim.

If airBaltic cancels while continuing to operate, passengers should request a refund or rerouting and the necessary care rather than accepting whichever option is presented first. Fixed compensation may also apply depending on the notice and reason, but if an airline ceases trading completely, possessing a legal claim does not guarantee immediate repayment, which is why the financial protection behind the booking matters.”