One of the worst things when traveling with young kids is unexpected wait times or changes to a your plan that you hadn’t prepared for.

Children can get bored and restless pretty easily, and it can get confusing juggling several passports and multiple boarding passes.

And with this in mind, we wanted to conduct research into which international airport and airlines are the most family-friendly when analyzing a whole host of factors that make them appealing to parents and kids alike.

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It’s fair to say that when traveling with young kids, we’re quietly hoping that everything runs smoothly. And let’s face it; no one enjoys delays.

We looked into on-time departure times and cancellation rates for 50 of the busiest airports in the world to see which offer the most reliable service so that you can make traveling with kids as simple as possible.

When you travel, there’s no denying that you’re going to be spending plenty of time both ways in the airport. Whether you’ve arrived super early or your flight has been delayed, we’ve looked at the number of things to do and places to eat so that you know what options there are for you and your family to enjoy during these long waits.

We all know that kids love their smartphones and tablets, be it messaging friends or playing games, and one of the most important things for keeping them entertained during long waits at the airport is free Wi-Fi. As such, we looked at each of these airports to see whether they offered free, unlimited Wi-Fi for everyone, or if their free Wi-Fi was limited.

In addition to airports, we also investigated which of the biggest airlines in the world were the most family-friendly, ranking each on whether they offered family-friendly services, such as free kids entertainment, onboard kids meals, and pre-boarding for families. We looked at the top 20 biggest airlines that you are likely to find on the best flight booking sites.

The World’s Most Family-Friendly Airports

Singapore Changi Airport

Family-Friendly Score – 8.73/10
On-time departure – 90.5%
Cancellations – 1%
Places to eat – 228
Things to do – 205
Unlimited free access to Wi-Fi – No

Singapore Changi Airport comes out top as the world’s most family-friendly airport, and for good reason.

With the third-highest on-time departure percentage of 90.5% and a very respectable 1% cancellation rate, Changi airport is super reliable and you can be pretty sure you and your family won’t have to wait for longer than you had planned.

If you do decide to spend some time at the airport, there are over 400 places to eat and things to do; perfect for entertaining the kids.

Frankfurt am Main International Airport

Family-Friendly Score – 8.47/10
On-time departure – 78.7%
Cancellations – 1.2%
Places to eat – 126
Things to do – 179
Unlimited free access to Wi-Fi – Yes

Runner up on this list is the German Frankfurt am Main International Airport, with a family-friendly score of 8.47.

Despite a slightly lower on-time departure percentage, this airport offers plenty of things to do and places to eat whilst waiting to board your flight, and with unlimited free Wi-Fi, these waits are even easier.

Frankfurt is also a one of the more reliable airports on our list, with a cancellation rate of just 1.2%.

Haneda Airport, Tokyo

Family-Friendly Score – 7.25/10
On-time departure – 90.3%
Cancellations – 7%
Places to eat – 225
Things to do – 47
Unlimited free access to Wi-Fi – Yes

Japan’s Tokyo airport, Haneda, ranks third on our list with a family-friendly score of 7.25.

Haneda offers one of the largest number of options of places to eat, second only to Singapore.

With free unlimited Wi-Fi and 47 things to do, Haneda is an excellent choice for families expecting longer layovers.

Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, Rome

Family-Friendly Score – 7.19/10
On-time departure – 90.1%
Cancellations – 0.6%
Places to eat – 66
Things to do – 111
Unlimited free access to Wi-Fi – No

Named after the world-renowned Italian Polymath, the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumcino airport in Rome is one of the best family-friendly airports on our list.

This airport demonstrates excellent reliability with a 90.1% on-time departure rate and a minimal 0.6% cancellation rate. There are also plenty of services to keep you fed entertained, however, a lack of unlimited free Wi-Fi can mean your kids get restless if you have a longer or layover.

Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid

Family-Friendly Score – 7.09/10
On-time departure – 91%
Cancellations – 0.3%
Places to eat – 80
Things to do – 8
Unlimited free access to Wi-Fi – Yes

Completing our list of the 5 most family-friendly airports is the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport in Spain, with a family-friendly score of 7.09.

Unlimited free Wi-Fi, great reliability, and 80 places to eat make this Spanish airport a great one for families expecting long waits between journeys or before an international flight.

It’s a little light on things to do, but with a 91% on-time departure rate you are unlikely to face lengthy delays.

The World’s 50 Most Family-Friendly Airports

The World’s Most Family-Friendly Airlines

Alongside revealing the world’s most family-friendly airports, we’ve also taken a deep-dive into the airlines that are best-suited to traveling with kids in tow.

To do so, we’ve rated and ranked the world’s 36 largest airlines on 8 family-friendly factors.

The only factor offered by all airlines was the ability to take a pushchair with you for free, while all the other amenities are scattered between the airlines, with all of our top 20 airlines offering a mix and match of family-friendly benefits.

Over and above these benefits, don’t forget that some airlines offer free or discounted tickets for kids.

You can see which airlines offer which family-friendly amenities in the following table.

Methodology

We created a list of 50 of the biggest international airports in the world from GetToCentre.com. To compare these airports for their family-friendly qualities, we looked at their on-time departure and cancellation percentages (taken from OAG.com), whether they offered free, unlimited Wi-Fi, and how many options families have of where to eat and what to do (taken from Tripadvisor).

We also looked at 36 of the biggest global airlines to see which airlines were the most family-friendly, looking at several factors deemed to be family-friendly. All information was sourced from the individual websites of each airline, with the following exceptions:

Please note that the rankings are just based on the information that is available online. If there was no evidence that an airline offers a service then we have deemed that they don’t.

The seat comfort ratings were retrieved from Skytrax.

The Amenities we used to compare airlines were free seat selection (whether or not the airline allows passengers to select their own seat on the plane, free of charge); free checked baggage (whether or not the airline allows passengers to check-in at least one piece of checked baggage free of charge); pre-boarding for families (whether or not the airline allows families with children to board the plane before general boarding, but not necessarily before first and business class passengers); no ‘lap fees’ (whether or not the airline charges a ‘lap fee’ or ‘infant fare’ for an infant to sit on a passenger’s lap for the flight); kids meals (Whether or not the airline offers a specific children’s meal option); free kids entertainment (whether or not the airline offers free in-flight entertainment that has options specifically tailored for children); on-board bassinet/carrycot (Whether or not the airline offers onboard bassinets or carrycots for babies. Note that these usually have to be pre-booked and are often only available in limited numbers); take pushchair for free (whether or not the airline allows pushchairs/strollers to be taken on board as a free part of your checked baggage allowance).

Our family-friendly rating was calculated by adding up each score out of 18 for each airline, where each yes is equal to 1 point. For example, a score of 100% would have a yes in all eight amenities and a 10/10 comfort score.

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