Most travel companies will assign a flight attended to sit with your child, and to walk thru the airport with them when they are flying alone.
My 13 and 14 flew alone but had to be accompanied by a flight attendant
As long as she’s mature enough and can follow rules and feels comfortable 12 is definitely an appropriate age
These days flying is different. Adults are on airplanes physically fighting and verbally arguing. Plus you never know about the people who may be traveling on a plane with sex trafficking and strangers trying to kidnap children. I am a teacher and I suggest that you ask yourself us my daughter mature enough to make a decision her life could depend upon in an emergency without an adult who would put her safety first. Suppose there was a flight emergency with the plane. Only a parent would put their child first if a plane was crashing etc. No one wants these things to happen but they do. You sound like you love your daughter but please consider is her life really worth it to save a few dollars. I would wait until she is at least 16 to allow her to gain a little more maturity and experience. I would not want to frighten her but she needs to realize the world has a lot if creepy people with bad intentions. I would be especially worried about a daughter. Please think carefully about your decision fir your daughters sake. Maybe plan a visit where you fly to see her and visit locally so you don’t need to spend so much money on airplane flights. Good luck and Hid bless.
I did it as an unaccompanied minor when I was about 5 the attendants take good care of you
My oldest started flying to and from texas at the age of six
I flew alone at age 12. Flight attendants checked on me a few times in the air. My mom walked me to the gate and the people I was going to picked me up at the other gate. No issues whatsoever.
My daughter was flying alone at 5. The airline was very helpful. My parents had to show ID before they would release her. She got great treatment
Here you can do unaccompanied flights at 12 years of age and they are chaperoned by an airline employee
Children fly all the time without a parent with the supervision of a flight attendant. She’ll be totally fine.
Kids can fly alone with an unaccompanied minor fee from ages 5-11 and the airline crew supervises them the entire trip. 12 and up with no fees and no airline supervision, though some airlines still allow you to pay the unaccompanied minor fee and keep the supervision until age 16. This is specifically the laws/rules in the US.
I understand however that a lot of parents would be concerned about their child flying alone.
But that’s not a reason to expect another person to pay twice as much to transport a child back and forth for visitation.
I’ve flown alone as a child. I want to say I was around 12 when I did it for the 1st time. They have someone from the airline accompany you through security and check in. Child will be the first to be seated and the last to get off the plane. Always accompanied through the airport until at their destination and with family.