No idea how to go about booking a short flight to get my son used to flying!

[allydoobs83]

My 5 year old son will be flying to Hungary with his dad and partner in May, but DS has got it into his head that he's scared of heights (he's not!) and is terrified of flying,despite never having been on a plane before. I'm planning on taking him on a short, internal flight (Dublin,Edinburgh, Jersey, etc) beforehand, so that he knows what to expect but I'm not well travelled myself and,as silly as it sounds, I have no idea where to start with booking flights.
We're in Doncaster so have the choice of a few airports, but am I better off going to individual airport websites,or searching by airline? If I search by airline,is there a quick way of finding out which ones do internal/short haul flights to the destinations I've mentioned above?
Apologies if I am being thick, but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Surely this is a problem for his dad to deal with, he's a parent too and he's the one DS will be flying with

The Op. could very definitely book something very shorthaul and “enjoy” 3/3 seating and jet propulsion on a reasonably sized aircraft, for example: Manchester - London with BA ( BA mainline short haul is all Airbus), there will be similar routes with Easyjet (all Airbus ) and Ryanair (all Boeing 737).

Still not convinced it’s the best plan though…..

Yup. Keep OUT

anyway. No sign of the OP

Thank you for all the useful comments, I'll definitely look into the fear of flying courses/Airport visits and am reconsidering the short haul flight idea, although if we were to do a flight, I wouldn't frame it as a practice run for his holiday, I'd sell it to him as a visit to the zoo or something,that just happens to mean we'd have to get on a plane.

Just to clear up a couple of things; I haven't mentioned anything about this to my DS, so I don't feel like I'm "feeding" into his fear and I'm not an anxious flyer,I just haven't travelled much.
DS has been on UK holidays with his dad before now,so I don't think his fears are based around that, he has just decided that he won't like flying. DS often uses "I'm scared" or "I'm shy" as an excuse not to do things,so I'm inclined to think that his "fear" of heights/flying is part of this.
I know that this is really my ex's problem,but he's very "alpha male-y" and if my DS does panic about getting on the plane, ex's response is likely to be along the lines of "stop being a baby". Ex's partner will be there too though,and she's a lot more empathic/sympathetic so I'm hoping she'll be able to comfort DS, if needed.
Going back to this being my ex's problem; I agree,it is,but as I'm in Doncaster and he's in London,so he can't really do too much in terms of preparing DS for the flight,as people have suggested, which is why I feel like the responsibility falls to me (I'm really not a helicopter mum or bothered about his dad being the one to take DS on his first flight)

If you are driving distance to Manchester Airport they have a great family pub which is up against the side of the runway with a large play area/beer garden along the runway. Great to go watch the planes and have lunch.

Agree with pp a short cheap flight will make it worse not better. The little planes they use for the short cheap flights are a lot less pleasant. The Hungary plane will basically feel like being on a bus.

I recommend instead a day trip to a science exploring type activity place. I don't know where your closest one is but they are everywhere. I know there's one in Rotherham but I expect there's one closer. Get him excited about the physics of flight and get him playing with a hands-on exhibit that demonstrates it - the one near me has an exhibit where you can adjust the wind speed and the wing angles and see the plane being pushed up by the air flow. If he's interested and excited he won't remember to be scared.

Seeing your update and how he's often using shy and scared, I think he might be more uncertain about anything new and unfamiliar. That's a very common thing. You can explain to him what to expect in airports, flights etc. If that's the case, then anything to get him familiar with it will be a good idea.

Just to reiterate what has been said a few times but ignored by others, a short flight doesn't necessarily equate to a small plane! easyJet and Ryanair and BA all offer various short domestic /and Common Travel Area flights and none of them operate any small or prop aircraft. The smallest you'll get is with BA, an Embraer 190 under their Cityflyer brand which is a 2x2 layout jet.

There are very few airlines that still operate with prop aircraft these days. Loganair, Eastern, Blue Islands and Aurigny are all that spring to mind.

Topsy and Tim books used to be great for this sort of thing

@PokerFriedDips

The little planes they use for the short cheap flights are a lot less pleasant. The Hungary plane will basically feel like being on a bus.

Not necessarily…. If the OP flies on, say, Ryanair on a domestic and then Ryanair for UK>Hungary, also on Ryanair they’ll find they are on a 737 on both sectors (it’s unlikely but potentially on the same aircraft). Ryanair are all 737…

Similar logic applies with using BA or Easyjet…common fleet (jet, 3 either side of the aisle), domestic and shorthaul into Europe.

@CheeseWisely has come up with a short list of operators where you could end up on a turboprop.

Actually as it's the Common Travel Area [predates the EU] you just need photo ID. But for most children that will be a passport. Which he'll need for Hungary anyway but the OP could travel with a valid driving licence.

I'd look for something to get him all excited about at the other end rather than the flight per se? There's a huge Zoo in Dublin very close to the airport so you could make it a day trip, the Titanic Museum in Belfast [but that might put him off boats too ;) ], there's a Lego museum in Denmark [Bilund so Ryanair I think goes closest] which friends said was an unexpectedly excellent and very cheap weekend away.

I think it's a nice thing to do and would be a nice day out but I suspect your son will be fine when the time comes unless he is quite sensitive and your ex has a tendency to go with the whole "man up" approach to life.

But 2-2 is a small plane layout. I'm comparing this to 3-4-3 and 3-3-3 layout planes. The later are much more stable.

Of course there's no guarantee the flight to Hungary won't be a small 2-2 layout plane.

TBh I think the seat layout in itself is well into red herring territory, response to turbulence and especially gusts is mainly to a factor called wing loading (wing area/weight) not aircraft size, seating or even engine type.

Turboprops (generally designed for operations off short runways) tend to have low wing loading and therefore yes, they are responsive to gusts/turbulence, but get into jet transport territory and objectively there’s really not much difference in gust response between a shorthaul jet (3-3) and a long haul wide body 3-4-3 or whatever.

As for the OPs plans - there won’t be many, if any operators plodding all the way, UK>Hungary, on a 2-2, certainly not a turboprop.

BTW just to illustrate a point I made earlier…the aircraft BA are using on the early PM LHR-BUD-LHR today is a A319 (180 ish seater, jet, 3-3) - It returns to London this evening and then is planned to turn to do a LHR-GLA-LHR domestic.

That is because of the common travel area. It is most definitely not domestic. We have been an independent country for over 100 years.

No, it's not. Doubling down on your ignorance just makes you look like an idiot. It's no more a domestic flight than a flight between Paris and Munich.

@OchonAgusOchonOh I didn't say it was domestic, and neither did the OP if you care to read her original post again.

She and I both said 'internal'. Internal means 'within' and the UK, ROI and Channel Islands are all within the Common Travel Area. On a flight within the CTA the OP could travel with photo ID other than a passport (some airlines may set their own varying rules on this, notably Ryanair). This is what makes a flight internally within the CTA different to a flight to outside of the CTA.

Arguing a point without having properly read what you're arguing against makes you look like an idiot.

I know that. I'm not arguing with the fact that ROI is a separate country of its own. I'm saying at English airports flights from Dublin into England are classed as domestic arrivals.

@WhisperingTree There's next to no difference in onboard experience of the flight itself on a 2-2 and a 3-3 so long as they are both jets.

To the best of my knowledge though BACF doesn't operate out of any of the Northern English airports so not something the OP would need to worry about if she were booking BA, Ryanair, easyJet out of one of the Northern English airports. She'd be on a 3-3 config minimum.

Any airplane will look and feel big and either scary or exciting to a 5yo who's never flown before. I think the trick is to not make a big deal of it, but very slowly introduce stories, toys, cartoons and games that include planes and pilots as fun, cool, friendly ideas rather than scary or very exciting ones.

It's a means of getting to somewhere nice/ getting home and it doesn't take very long. Explain that he'll be able to wear his headphones, play games on his tablet and eat sweets and it's more like a train ride than a roller coaster!

British Airways disagree with you.

They are not classed as domestic flights. They simply use the same terminal as a domestic flight would due to the CTA.

I agree, the short flights can be bumpy. My DC first flights were long haul. Much smoother flight. Time for them to relax and nap. I wouldn’t bother with anything other than going by an airport and viewing the planes landing and taking off. I would offer to fly with him…you could go with him and fly back by yourself from Hungary?

Have a day out to Manchester airport runway park, there’s planes to look round, a Concorde, fairground rides, a flight simulator and you can watch the planes landing and taking off, with a running commentary if you go at the weekend. It’s free, apart from parking, and the rides, obviously.

They do a flight academy for kids where they learn about all the different airport jobs and can pretend to fly the plane for a small cost too, but it needs prebooking.

Pick an airport, see what airlines fly from that airport and then fly to Edinburgh, stay overnight (or longer) and get the train back.

Yes to this.

How well does he know the new partner? Does he like her?

Has he ever spent a prolonged time with his father in charge?

Has he ever been to Hungary before? Does he have relatives there and does he know them?