You are still in time to make a decision about a summer trip to catch a bit of sun. If you’re lucky and hard-bitten last minute holidays, low budget flights and interesting destinations could be found easily now.
It will be your first flight with kids? Maybe not.
It will be your next flight after a traumatic first one that was not easy and relaxing at all?
How to prepare our kid on spectrum ( and not only!) to have a good time on board?
What should you do is “work visually” before you decide to travel with an individual who struggles for too much noise, crowded spaces or who makes a big effort to try to focus on one thing or action in a sequence of many new and unfamiliar situations.

What do I mean is try to explain every single part of the plan in a very detailed and descriptive way. Begin from the start like buying a tickets and preparing the luggage. Make the travel stuff ready together – it’s fun and it will make you both feel engage and exciting about what will happen soon. Good idea is to prepare also a small full-of-toys backpack just to avoid a soap opera because of ‘I want my toys!’ rage burst. Let your kid decide what to pack in his bag.
Some airport has great observation decks with the possibility of watching takeoffs and landings at the nearest runway. That is a good idea if you have a kid interested in all the vehicles like buses and trains and luggage trucks.
Some of the companies organise “guided visits” including security check and boarding procedure experience.
Back to educational material to be found on internet that we personally tested and strongly recommend there are some great picture books and cards you can use to teach.  All the positions are from the same publishing house Usborne that we love for being so awesomely dedicated to a process of teaching, learning, playing and explaining to our kids how lovely and interesting world is!
After years of flying sited first on my knees as a baby then on his own spot but without any problems my son decided to be totally firm on fact that he won’t follow the rules and fasten his seatbelt… He hated to be immobilised. (Same problems we got with the new car seat; once we changed it the seatbelt system was changed too)
Tantrum started right after the boarding was completed and there was a command to remain seated with the seatbelt well fastened… With all the flight guests more or less delighted about a screaming 3-years-old red-on-his-face-for-the-fury monster we were completely frozen and helpless. And the same scene during the landing. And the way back… Ohhh my….
One year after, before we took a flight for our summer holidays, we decided to explain carefully and ‘visually’ every single step which should be make in order to take a freaking plane to go somewhere and not to participate in flash mob made by my kid.
Great position to start with is First Experiences by Usborne. First book we bought after our failure flight two years ago was “Going on a plain”. Colourful picture book tells a story about a family going on a trip. Cute, funny and short enough to keep your kid focused. I would suggest for age 3+ but also earlier is quite good.

The other creation is a big and fat “Wind-up Plane Book” with a tiny airplane to run through runways you will find inside the book. That one works perfectly also as a reinforcer(!).
Both creations tell about a plane trip experience and what you should expect one step after another. You can obviously add your own points of view and funny stories in between just to make it personalised. Be creative! Introduce your kid to flying and explain that it’s a great adventure and it’s ok to be excited or even anxious a bit if it will be the first time on board.

You can also try the “50 Things to Spot at the Airport (Usborne Spotter’s Cards)” I talked about some posts ago. Quite pocket size and good material for a mini engineer. Specially boys would enjoy I think as there are a lot of cars, truck and tech stuff to explore about.

After you ‘train’ you little one to fly there is only one thing you have to remember.
SNACKS.
A lot of them.
In a crucial tragic moment, that could be the only possible ‘goods’ that saves you.
And may the force be with you!