Car seats on flight

[Tickletuesday]

We are travelling with our 2 1/2 year old grandchild to Spain. We have a car seat which we are taking with us. Does anyone use the car seat in the plane seat, not even sure how you would secure it, or just sit your child in a plane seat and check the car seat in , we have a travel bag. We fly to Spain a lot and have never
noticed anyone using a car seat. ( it is a lightweight slim chair that can be used on board.). It will be easyJet or Ryanair if that matters. Thank you for any responses.

It would need to forward face and be able to be secured by a lap belt. If it can't be fitted in safely then it should go in the hold

There is only a small list of car seats approved to actually be used on a flight, and these are only in certain seats. Unless you've specifically checked yours fits the airline criteria and have booked appropriate seats I would check the car seat into the hold and just collect the other side.

Check with your airline.

I’ve looked on their website. It’s not particularly helpful.

What car seat do you have?

I would package the seat up in a box/padded car seat bag and check it in.

The reason you need a child seat in a car is because a standard 3-point belt is too high for a child (it goes across their face or neck), so you have to either use an entire seat that is restrained differently, or a booster for the child's height so the 3-point belt can't injure them. But planes have lap belts and so you don't need a seat for a child, which is probably why you've never seen one. In fact you might not even be allowed to use one.

We had one that was airline compliant, fit the seats and could be secured with a lap belt. Took me so much research to find one they couldn't argue over. They still made us check it as luggage becuase the staff just didn't understand the rules, it was a complete faff, they all said different rules.

So just expect to check it.

it’s a nania, it’s lightweight and easy to put in the hire car ( and a much better seat than those you hire over there ). The write up says it’s compatible. I assume you just lace the seatbelt through the back like you do in the car. I think I’ll just check it in, thinking about it, it’s hard enough getting us through to board with her buggy so lugging the car seat around will be hassle.

I think I’ll check it in. Thanks for sharing your experience I was looking for that.

I think checking it in is better. I can't see a Nania that has a width shorter than 43cm which is the maximum for ryanair flights. I haven't looked at the other criteria but it seems most Nania car seats fall at the first hurdle.

Please don't put your grandchild in a nania car seat. They score so poorly for safety and fall apart in crashes over 30mph.

You might be able to use it on the plane however no Nania seat that I'm aware of has the official plane approval.

The width listings aren't normally very helpful, because it only needs to be that narrow at the base where it fits within the plane seat armrests.

The airline may not approve it. If you are very keen to use a car seat on board, you might want to try and get written approval from the airline. It is a bit of a grey area because basically the plane rules stipulate that it must be approved to ECE R44 (which it will be if it's a Nania belt fitted seat) and that it can be fitted with a lap belt only. This is the grey area, because there are currently NO seats on the UK (or European) market which can be fitted with lap belt officially in a car. The regulations have got stricter over the years and it's impossible to secure a seat just with a lap belt and fit into them because the seat will move around too much and not meet the safety regulation. This is why with all car seats you need to use the whole seatbelt to fit it (unless it's isofix).

But if you interpret it more like "it's possible to secure the seat just with a lap belt" then you can technically do that with most seatbelt fitted seats, unless the diagonal belt has a very important part in the fitting. In that case, you just route the plane belt through where the lap belt would go in the car and ignore the part where the diagonal belt goes.

It's possible you won't get a very secure fit. It's up to you whether you think this is more or less safe than just the plane seatbelt, because without the flight approval nobody has tested that particular seat. It might be that when you get onto the plane, you find it doesn't fit securely and the staff refuse the use of the seat, at which point you will have to put it into the plane hold with no protective covering on it. Some people find it makes more sense to just check the car seat in as oversized baggage (this is often free when travelling with a child, anyway) and pack the seat well in some kind of protective packaging - a cardboard box is best, but you can also use a bag - and then you know it hasn't been bashed around when you use it at your destination.

I used to take my graco seats onto ba but this was 20 years ago. They had the faa approval sticker on them

Thank you for your post. On a 2 hour flight it’s prob not worth the hassle. I’ll just book it in the hold. There are no labels on the seat that say aircraft approved i just read it somewhere.

It’s not the car seat I use here. I was looking for something for the hire car. What makes you say they are unsuitable, don’t all car seats have to comply to standards ?

Can you point me towards the tests you have seen please. Thanks

If you haven't bought the seat yet, I would recommend this one instead:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Graco-Convertible-Rearward-40-105cm-76-105cm/dp/B0BMBBJW5R?th=1

It is a bit more expensive than the Nania ones, but it's got the newer safety standard, the company has a good safety reputation and it's easier to use. Also still quite lightweight, seatbelt fit and not too expensive.

Ideally, use rear facing for best safety, it can be used rear facing up to about 4 years. But you can fit this seat forward facing too.

If you are going to fit a seatbelt fitted seat forward facing this is a good guide to getting it as tight as possible, which is really important:

https://www.derby.gov.uk/transport-and-streets/road-safety/road-safety-films/fit-tips-belt-front/

Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll have a look at it.