YOUR children are going to camp far from home this summer, but you can’t get off work or justify the expense of an extra plane ticket just to fly them there. Should you trust the airlines to take care of them if they fly alone?

Given the well-publicized difficulties in commercial air travel — with ever-shifting security rules and, earlier this year, passengers stuck on grounded planes — some parents simply won’t consider it.

“Some families don’t have a choice,” said Michelle Bisnoff, a mother of two from Orange County, Calif., “but how can anyone trust the overall situation for their kids, much less hand off the light of their life to underpaid flight attendants from close-to-bankrupt airlines, who have a full-time job once they are in the air, and it’s not watching your kid?”

“No way,” she concluded. “I’d be a nervous wreck.”

Yet many children between 5 and 14 years old fly alone each year, with most airlines charging fees to take them. JetBlue flew more than 40,000 unaccompanied minors last year, with most traveling during June, July and August. American Airlines flies roughly 200,000 a year. Southwest (one of the few that charge no fee) takes more than 100,000.

Each airline has its own set of rules. In general, airlines promise to escort unaccompanied minors onto their flights and release them to the properly designated person upon arrival. Some carriers give children pouches where they can keep their IDs and itineraries. Others have designated areas in airports, with books, games and snacks, where children can wait for connecting flights under airline supervision. Both Qantas and Air New Zealand require their employees not to seat unaccompanied minors next to men.

But the airlines’ assistance is far from babysitting service. Children must be at least 5 years old to fly alone. Three or four different airline employees may take responsibility for a minor during one trip — shuffling the child from airline workers at the departing city to flight attendants on the plane to other employees at the destination. And they are typically barred from care-taking tasks like giving your child medicine.

To make sure the child is handed off correctly at the end of the trip, some carriers ask for a photocopy at the time of check-in of the photo identification of the person who will receive the child.

International flights tend to involve more paperwork. For example, a child alone or with an adult other than a parent or legal guardian must have a notarized letter of authorization in Spanish to fly between the United States and the Dominican Republic.

To increase the chances that unaccompanied children won’t be stranded somewhere, they are rarely accepted on the last flight of the day. And some airlines will turn them away if the weather is threatening.

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, most domestic carriers stopped allowing unaccompanied children 8 and younger to take connecting flights, and most now continue to allow them only on nonstop or direct flights. A few carriers, including US Airways, JetBlue and Southwest, won’t accept unaccompanied minors of any age on connecting flights.

The restrictions have forced parents to be more selective in choosing flights. And summer camps that receive children from far away have had to respond. When the child’s route to camp demands a change of planes, “some camps may fly a staff member to that hub city and have them inside security to meet the flights,” said Don Cheley, a board member of the American Camp Association and a director at Cheley Colorado Camps in Estes Park, Colo., “just for the change.”

The cost for children flying alone has been going up. Last summer, JetBlue, which previously offered its unaccompanied-minor service free, began charging a $25 fee each way and raised the maximum age for which it is required to 12 from 11. American raised its fee to $75 from $60 in March. Continental raised its fees between $5 and $20 last year and now charges $50 on nonstop domestic flights and $95 on connecting flights.

For many parents, knowing someone is looking out for their children is well worth the cost. “It would be so scary if your child ended up in another city somewhere and no one really knew,” said Melissa Babcock, a mother of two from Kenilworth, Ill., whose son Will, now 15, has been flying solo since he was 11.

For teenagers, most airlines will provide unaccompanied minor service for the usual fee, but don’t require it.

Mix-ups do happen. Last June, a 14-year-old boy flying as an unaccompanied minor to South Bend, Ind., with United fell asleep while waiting for a transfer at Chicago O’Hare airport and missed his flight, according to reports by The Associated Press. And another boy, who was supposed to be flying to Taipei, Taiwan, via Tokyo, ended up in his seat. When the mix-up was discovered, United turned the plane around and went back to O’Hare to correct the mistake.

But such blunders are not common. Out of a total of 8,324 complaints against airlines received by the Department of Transportation last year, just 49 concerned unaccompanied minors.

FOR parents unwilling to place their children in the care of an airline, Shawn Habibi, founder of the Trusted Traveler, a business based in St. Paul, runs a service that sends personal escorts to pick children up at their homes and travel beside them for the entire journey. Unlike the airlines, it will accommodate very young children and those who need to switch planes en route.

“A child who is 8 years old might be frightened,” said Mr. Habibi, who has a 2-year-old daughter himself. “We explain to them the bumps and noises and things that happen on airplanes. That’s the difference in service.”

It comes with a hefty price tag: $1,500 round trip for domestic flights and $2,000 for international. That’s on top of the price of the tickets for the child and the escort.

Even though his child transport service escorted only a handful of clients in its first year, business has been growing, Mr. Habibi said, with divorced parents making up a significant portion of the clientele. This year, he expects to transport roughly 150 unaccompanied minors.

When sending children off on solo flights, be sure they have a copy of the itinerary in case something goes awry. A cellphone or phone card with important phone numbers is a good idea, so that your child can easily contact you if problems occur. And be sure to remain at the airport until the flight has departed — not just left the gate. At domestic airports, most airlines will provide a gate pass to parents so that they can accompany the child through security and to the gate.