By: AP

The Transportation Department is rolling out a “dashboard” to let travelers see at a glance which airlines help families with young children sit together at no extra cost.

The announcement Monday comes as the department works on regulations to prevent families from being separated on planes.

It’s the latest salvo in the Biden administration’s efforts to clamp down on what it calls “ junk fees ” and to put pressure on airlines to improve service.

The dashboard rewards airlines with a green check if they guarantee that an adult family member can sit next to their young children if seats are available. On Monday, only three of the 10 U.S. airlines listed on the website received a green check: Alaska, American and Frontier.

The site also includes links to each airline’s customer policies.

“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a release announcing the dashboard. He gave his department credit for pressuring airlines, “and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change.”

Airlines “already work to accommodate customers who are traveling together, especially those traveling with children, and will continue to do so,” said Hannah Walden, a spokeswoman at Airlines for America, a trade group whose members include the six largest U.S. carriers. “Each carrier has established individual policies, but all make every effort to ensure families sit together.”

This year, several carriers have pledged to make changes in their seating policies.

Last month, Frontier Airlines said it would automatically seat at least one parent next to any child under 14.

Last week, American Airlines updated its customer-service plan with a guarantee that children 14 and under would be seated next to an accompanying adult at no extra cost.

United Airlines said it would let families with children under 12 to pick adjoining seats at no extra cost starting in early March in certain fare classes. The announcement seemed to fall short of Transportation standards however, because the department issued a notice last July that it intends to ban extra charges to have a family adult sit next to children up to age 13.

The new dashboard builds on a site that the Transportation Department started last year to detail compensation for passengers whose flights are canceled or delayed.

In other travel related news, the AP has reported that the CEO of American Airlines says he is ready to give pilots raises and higher retirement contributions that would average 40% over four years to match a contract recently approved by pilots at Delta Air Lines.

By the end of the agreement, Robert Isom said in a video to pilots, a top-scale captain on a plane like a Boeing 737 would make $475,000 a year in salary and retirement-plan contributions, while a senior captain on a larger plane such as a Boeing 777 would earn $590,000 a year.

On Thursday, the Allied Pilots Association said its board voted unanimously to open a “strike center” and survey members on authorizing a walkout.

Union spokesman Dennis Tajer said the strike vote “has been contemplated for several months as a contingency in the event that a deal is not reached.” He said it is crucial to get a deal before the summer travel season.

(AP)