Transport Canada wants Canadians to weigh in on use of car seats on flights

Should parents be required to use car seats on commercial flights? Would they disrupt travel or make flying safer for young kids? Transport Canada wants to hear what you think.

Federal regulators say they are looking at whether to make car seats (child restraint systems) mandatory for children under two years old, and they are inviting the public to weigh in.

Currently, parents with babies and toddlers under the age of two have the option to either hold their child on their lap for the whole flight, or buy a seat a for their child.

The agency notes, though, that current commercial airline lap belts are not well suited to safely restrain children under a certain weight and height.

But holding a child on a lap may not always be a safe option either. In December, 2012, a lap-held infant died in a landing accident at the Sanikiluaq airport in Nunavut. Eight other people on that flight, including the pilot and co-pilot, survived.

Transport Canada already recommends car seats be used during flights, which it says offer “the best protection” for an infant or child, minimize the effects of turbulence, and make children the most comfortable.

But making car seat use mandatory would force parents to buy a separate seat for their child. Currently, children under the age of two fly for free if they are seated on an adult's lap.

Following the infant death in Nunavut, the Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2015 that seatbelts specially designed seatbelts for babies and children be mandatory to prevent children from "becoming projectiles" or dying in otherwise survivable accidents.

"Adults are not strong enough to adequately restrain an infant just by holding on," TSB chairwoman Kathy Fox said at the time.

"Research has proven it. It's time to do right by our children. They deserve the same level of safety."

Transport Canada is inviting the public to read its background document on the issue and weigh in on two questions:

The public consultation will be open until April 30.