The Nation's Most Family Friendly Airports...

Who knew!? According to a new study published today, Edinburgh is the most family friendly airport in the UK. The study also placed Glasgow second and Heathrow bottom. Skyscanner asked 1000 families (yes you heard right!) to score the UK's 10 major airports on factors including children's play areas and facilities, food options for children and the security process. 

Heathrow - The UK's busiest airport didn't fare so well -  it carries more than 69m passengers each year, but got low scores for its lack of children's play areas, its overcrowding and small seating areas. Airports in the North West did better with Liverpool and Manchester taking third and fourth place (not bad!)

Gatwick (having upped its game with a number of family friendly initiatives last year) came fifth and was noted for its accessibility and healthy eating options.

We spoke to travel expert James Ellis (former travel editor and deputy features editor of Metro) for his insights into travelling with children and how airports can improve things for families in general…

What do you think has positioned Edinburgh airport at the top of the poll?

The study assessed the ten busiest airports in the UK and then asked families to grade them on specifically family friendly criteria; so how easy it is to get through security, the shopping facilities, how family friendly the staff are - that kind of thing and then they had to give a score out of ten for each airport. Those scores were then averaged out and Edinburgh came number one. It scored very highly on things like people getting through security very easily, children not finding the security process frightening, free play areas for kids. If you go to the information desks, there are lots of things that children can do so they can enjoy their holiday before they've even taken off.

You're a father yourself, do you have any tips about how to keep your kids entertained while travelling?

You need to feel the holiday is an extension of being at home really, what kind of things do children like to do there? If they like exploring then do that, if they're very young children they may be used to having certain toys around, they may feel a little out of sorts when they're in a foreign country that is not familiar to them, so do bring some of those toys with you and make it as normal as possible for them so it's not such a huge change when they go away.

Airports further away from the capital seem to have scored very highly…

If you're somewhere like Heathrow or Gatwick, they're very big airports and perhaps people's experience of the airports might differ depending on what terminal they're in… Terminal five was much misaligned when it first opened but the actual process of going through the airport from curb side to security only takes around ten minutes, whereas with terminal one the experience is probably quite different to that and I think people take those things into account…

How do you think an airport like Heathrow can improve its customer service for families in particular?

It's a tough one, terminal five does cater for families relatively well and terminal three has had a lot of investment recently but Heathrow is quite an old airport and at times they are constantly having to play catch up on refurbishment and that will have a negative effect on things at the moment so hopefully when that's sorted they'll have a higher score. Once a lot of the work is done then it will be a lot easier for families.

Do you think they prioritise luxury stores and restaurants over family facilities?

Not necessarily. I think there is an element of that at Heathrow when it comes to shopping but there are also some very very good family areas there too.  It depends again which terminal you fly from. One tip I give people is go on an airport's website before you fly - because airports are very big places and it might be quite hard to find out where the family area might be. One of the things that the survey seems to have highlighted is that people weren't actually aware that there are family friendly facilities and that they could have gone online and looked at the site and found out about the airport seen the map and the family friendly facilities and made a beeline straight for them, instead of wandering round the airport looking for something, not really sure whether it existed or not!

Have you ever had any nightmare experiences on your travels -with or without your family?

Not nightmare, but I've had some sticky situations lets say! Particularly when you travel with young children - I have two twins who are 14 months old and travelling at times can be quite challenging. We were flying off to Tenerife just before Xmas and we went through the security line and because of the security levels they make you taste stuff for the baby. I was picking up this pot of what I expected to be some kind of baby porridgy breakfast but in fact it was cold cheesy herb pie - it was six in the morning! Which is not the kind of thing you want to be tasting! 

If you were running an airport yourself how would you turn things around?

With families in particular you need outlook at when the busiest traffic comes through for families, then you need to look at things like half term which is coming up next week and make sure your family friendly facilities are really in place before these busy times and then make sure you travel to an airport that has a great family friendly activity process. I've travelled on the busiest day of the year and they only had one lane open which obviously delayed everybody and made some of the children quite nervous and quite angry and then mums and dads are more stressed and that's never a good way to start a holiday! Just prioritise the best facilities at peak times - that's my advice. It's really important to remember that a holiday may be the only two weeks of the year a family might really get to spend time together, so it needs to be valued by airports for people to have that escapism - for the journey (from the minute they leave their house till the minute they return) to be as pleasant as possible. 

Interview by Alice Kahrmann 07 February 2012