Air passengers loathe encroaching neighbours, rowdy kids
Some passengers ask to change seat when they are irked by their neighbours, but few do. — Picture by Dmitriy Shironosov/shutterstock.comPARIS, June 11 — Sixty per cent of European airline passengers are irritated when a passenger in a neighbouring seat stretches out, according to a Lastminute.com survey.
Almost as many passengers (59 per cent) find rambunctious kids on flights annoying, while 53 per cent of those surveyed are bothered by drunk passengers.
Noise is also a source of disruption for travellers surveyed with 38 per cent admitting to being irritated by others talking loudly, 29 per cent by those listening to very loud music and the same proportion finding noisy, messy eaters a source of annoyance. In seventh position on the list of disruptive airplane behaviours were passengers who snore.
On the quirky side, a quarter of those polled find applause on landing annoying. Almost one-fifth (18 per cent) are bothered by chatty neighbours but only eight per cent by flirtatious ones.
Overall, more than half of those polled do not act on these sources of annoyance. Thirty-six per cent of British passengers ask to change seats in such cases while only 11 per cent of French travellers do so.
Some passengers even go to extremes to ignore the sources of these irritations, with 9 per cent seeking refuge in alcoholic beverages and the same percentage using sleeping pills.
This poll “Les habitudes de vacances des européens” (Europeans’ vacation habits) was conducted by lastminute.com between April 25 and May 20, 2012 among 6,193 participants from five European countries (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain). — AFP/Relaxnews
