Flying with a young child almost always means flying with a pushchair, and the good news is that UK short-haul airlines generally treat it as an essential item rather than ordinary luggage. The detail that trips parents up is not whether a pushchair is allowed, but how gate-checking actually works, and what happens to the pushchair between the departure gate and the arrival hall.
What "gate-checking" actually means
Gate-checking allows a pushchair to be used right up until boarding, rather than being checked in at the airport check-in desk hours before the flight. easyJet’s own help page confirms that for every infant or child, the airline will "carry two additional items for your child in the hold for free," and lists a travel cot, pushchair, car seat, collapsible or non-collapsible pram, booster seat and baby back carrier as eligible items. In practice, this means a parent can use the pushchair throughout the airport and hand it over at the aircraft steps or the door, where it is tagged and placed in the hold rather than the cabin.
What easyJet and Ryanair each allow
easyJet’s policy treats the pushchair as outside the normal baggage allowance entirely, at no extra cost, for infants and children travelling on the booking. Ryanair takes a different approach for the child themselves: its help centre states that infants aged up to 7 days cannot be accepted for travel at all, and that infants from 8 days to 23 months inclusive must travel on an accompanying adult’s lap, with a separate baby bag allowance of up to 5kg (45 x 35 x 20cm) permitted in addition to the standard allowance. Ryanair’s guidance also confirms that baby-changing facilities are provided on board, located at the rear of the aircraft.
Where the free allowance stops
The free allowance generally applies to one pushchair per child travelling on the booking, and airlines distinguish between a genuinely collapsible pushchair and other larger baby equipment. A double or non-folding pushchair may still be accepted, but airlines increasingly direct these to be checked in at the bag-drop desk rather than gate-checked, since a large, non-collapsible frame is harder to stow quickly in the hold during a short turnaround. Checking the specific policy for a booked airline before departure avoids a surprise at the gate.
What happens to the pushchair on arrival
A gate-checked pushchair is typically returned at the aircraft door on arrival, rather than on the main baggage carousel, which is why many parents choose gate-checking over ordinary hold check-in even when both are free: it avoids a wait at baggage reclaim with a young child who has just come off a flight. This detail is not always obvious from an airline’s website and is worth confirming with cabin crew before landing if it has not been stated at boarding.
Protecting the pushchair in the hold
Because a gate-checked pushchair travels loose in the hold rather than in a protective case, some damage risk exists, particularly to wheels, brakes or folding mechanisms. Airlines’ baggage policies for damaged items generally apply to gate-checked pushchairs in the same way they apply to any other hold item, so keeping a note of the pushchair’s condition before travel and reporting any damage immediately on arrival, in line with the airline’s standard complaints process, is the usual route for a claim.
What to check before you fly, regardless of airline
Beyond the free allowance itself, it is worth checking three things specific to the booked airline before travelling: whether the fare includes hold luggage automatically or whether the pushchair uses the only free hold allowance on the booking, whether a compact-fold pushchair might qualify to travel in the cabin as hand luggage under a higher fare tier, and whether the destination airport returns gate-checked items at the aircraft door or routes them to the main baggage carousel. None of these details are always obvious from a fare summary at the point of booking, and confirming them in advance avoids working it out for the first time at the departure gate with a tired toddler in tow.
Frequently asked questions
Is a car seat treated the same way as a pushchair? Under easyJet’s policy, a car seat is listed alongside a pushchair as one of the free items carried for a child, subject to the same per-child allowance.
What is the minimum age to fly on easyJet? easyJet’s own age categories define an infant as 14 days to 2 years old, noting that "babies under 14 days old are unable to travel."
What is the minimum age to fly on Ryanair? Ryanair’s help centre states infants aged up to 7 days cannot be accepted for travel on any Ryanair flight.
The bottom line
Gate-checking makes flying with a young child considerably easier, letting a pushchair be used throughout the airport before being carried free in the hold. The details that matter are the per-child allowance, whether a specific pushchair counts as genuinely collapsible, and the airline’s own age rules for infants, all of which are worth checking against the specific carrier before booking.