oneworld

British Airways has flown generations of solo children around the world, with “flying nannies” looking after under-12s travelling alone. But in BA’s latest move to cut costs, the airline is ending its “Unaccompanied Minor” (UM) service. The airline has not publicised the move widely. Instead, BA told passengers with children booked to fly as UMs that, while existing tickets will be honoured, no new bookings will be accepted. A spokeswoman for BA said: “Despite the overall growth in our customer numbers over the last decade, demand for our unaccompanied minor service has declined by two thirds, falling by 21% in the last year.” British Airways operates far more non-stop long-haul services from the UK than any other airline, so the move is likely to hit thousands of families. <br/>

The public spat between American Airlines Group and Gogo, which provides the bulk of the carrier's domestic inflight Wi-Fi, could be considered the final blow to ground-based Internet access that has become another irritating part of the air-travel experience. It will take years for Gogo to install its backlog of orders for faster Internet service, but at least the beginning of the end of a sluggish era of in-flight Wi-Fi is finally near. The fight started when American petitioned a Texas district court Feb 12 to enforce a contract term allowing it to ditch Gogo for a faster service from rival ViaSat Inc. Ten days later—once Gogo shares had tanked by more than a third—American withdrew its request for a declaratory judgment after Gogo agreed with American’s interpretation of that contract provision. <br/>