Make the flight easier for you and the woman scowling at you from across the aisle by trying out these tips for travelling with kids.

1. Cabin luggage: bring a change of clothes, a favourite toy and a new toy, favourite food and drinks, medication, books and books on tape.

2. Pre-plan seats: take a look at the seating configuration online then pre-book if you can. Consider splitting up the family if that is the easiest way to keep the children calm.

3. Get there early: arrive at the airport early to avoid the long check-in queues, better still check-in online. Most airlines will let families with young children board first, take advantage of that and when the plane lands wait for

everyone else to disembark before you move.

4. Keep the pushchair: rather than checking in your pushchair keep it with you for getting through the terminals. Most airlines

will let you store it in the cabin as long as it folds up.

5. Tag your runaways: if your kids can run faster than you make a badge or wrist band with their name and your phone number on it. If the worst case happens you will be able to find them more easily.

6. Hard candy: give your child sweets to suck during takeoff and landing to minimise the pain on little ears. For babies, giving them a bottle is the best trick.

7. Tired in transit: If you have to wait in a transit lounge then bring a ball for the kids to kick around. Hopefully they’ll get tired enough to sleep on the next flight.

8. Make it an adventure: travelling is fun, so chat to your kids about what is happening where you are going to and let them follow the trip on the on-screen map. Giving them the window seat can help too.