No-frills carrier AirAsia has announced plans to introduce a "quiet zone" on its AirAsia X flights, allowing passengers to avoid the screams of babies and young children.

A new booking system allows passengers to reserve a seat, at no extra cost, in the designated area when booking through the airline's website.

The zone incorporates seven rows of seats towards the front of an Airbus A330, behind the airline’s Premium FlatBed seats. AirAsia claims passengers will experience “minimal noise” in the seats and soft lighting.

Any group containing a passenger younger than 12 will not be able to book these seats.

AirAsia no longer flies from the UK but has regular flights connecting Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia with south-east Asia.

The new seating plan follows a move by Malaysian Airlines earlier this year to ban children from the top deck of its A380 aircraft.

A number of surveys have claimed that the majority of passengers find noisy children their biggest gripe when flying.

The results of a recent poll of Telegraph Travel readers found that nearly 70 per cent of those who voted supported the introduction of child-free flights.

AirAsia’s “quiet zone” is available on flights departing from February 2013 onwards.