Gareth Edmondson-Jones, JetBlue's Vice President of Corporate Communications, confirmed to ANN that JetBlue may become the first major airline to offer car-style child seats, on its fleet of A320s.

The FAA has apparently been shopping the idea around, but has met with industry resistance, no doubt exacerbated by recent record load factors.

JetBlue, though, is working with car-seat-maker Amsafe, to find that proper combination of safety and efficiency.

It has long been public wisdom that children in adult-sized car seats are not as protected as other little kids, in properly-designed and -anchored child restraint seat systems. Whether there would be a statistically-verifiable improvement, using similar technology in airliners, may still be a matter for debate (would a statistically-significant number of tiny people in safety seats out-survive an identical group of non-safety-seated kids, given the nature of airline crashes?). However, there is no doubt that the marketing effect of a "caring" image would be a plus.

There is always the more-obvious benefit of knowing that your toddler won't be squirming free of the adult-size seatbelt, just as the 'liner hits turbulence, or as that hot coffee is being passed to the lady in the window seat...

The big problem (outside the obvious scientific question) has always been that such seats are bulky, and with carry-on space so limited, and so many seats full -- would the public (especially the primo business travelers) stand for the added inconvenience?

While it's OK with the FAA to bring, and use, car seats for your kids on airliners (and it's still recommended for infants), Amsafe's solution to the problem -- at least for kids who weigh from about 20 to 45 pounds -- is to add a webbed harness to the existing seatbelt system. The harness doesn't greatly restrict the child's mobility, except that it keeps the little darling properly-oriented in the seat; and it also will hold your child back, better than a single adult belt, in the event of rapid deceleration. The webbing folds up small, too -- about the size of a softball, so it's a lot more space-efficient than the traditional, hard child seats from our cars.

Amsafe debuted the system in June; since then, it's been working with the FAA to get it approved. JetBlue's spokewsoman, Fiona Morrison, told ANN that they're not sure when approval will come. The airline, she said, is still working out the logistics: "We're not certain yet whether we'll just have them on board, or whether passengers will reserve them with their tickets," she said.

Catch-22 for some airlines, but not for JetBlue

Can an airline start offering the safety devices on the premise that the old way of doing things was less-safe, and still avoid civil suits for past fatalities? JetBlue may be the ideal launch customer, if that's the case: they've never had any passenger fatalities. Additionally, those demanding business travelers are a smaller demographic at JetBlue than at the older, premium airlines. Now... what will the competition do?

FMI: www.jetblue.com; www.amsafe.com