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Traveling by plane can be annoying. Maybe someone throws a fit over the airplane's meal selection, or perhaps no one will swap seats with you, even if you really want them to.
Whatever the drama, flights feel like they've been overcome by bad passenger behavior this year. Airplane etiquette has become so widely discussed that a new study ranks annoying behaviors from most to least irritating — and determines which generations are most bothered.
The study, published on November 2 by Lindsey Roeschke, an analyst at data intelligence company Morning Consult, found the most frustrating behaviors deal with personal space and hygiene. Conducted between October 13 and 16, the report used a sample of 2,227 US adults.
According to 51% of respondents, the most annoying thing is sitting next to a person who takes up space (think: using up both armrests, leaning into you as you sleep). That's closely followed by people displaying unhygienic behaviors (like taking off their shoes or clipping their nails), which bothered 50% of respondents.
Showing signs of sickness, eating smelly foods, and or flying while visibly intoxicated all make the list, too.
If you do any of these, you better hope you're seated next to a Gen Zer — according to the study, young people are the least bothered by annoying airplane etiquette. Per Pew Research Center, Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2012; millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Xers were born between 1965 and 1980. Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, according to the research center.
"Gen Z adults are, relative to older generations, far less bothered by almost all of the behaviors in question," the report reads. "In fact, for most behaviors, the older the generation, the more likely they are to be annoyed by a particular passenger behavior."
According to Morning Consult, 63% of Gen Z respondents said they were bothered by the person beside them taking up too much space, compared to 86% of boomers.
The most significant generational gap the survey found was related to intoxication. Per the report, 83% of baby boomers are bothered by people being visibly intoxicated. Meanwhile, 55% of Gen Zers said they find it annoying.
When it comes to crying babies — a topic hot enough to send at least one passenger into an expletive-filled rage earlier this year — passengers' feelings are complicated, the report says.
Crying kids ranked 10th out of 12 behaviors identified by Morning Consult. "However, when respondents were asked to choose the top three most bothersome behaviors from the list, naughty children moved several places higher: 27% of U.S. adults chose youngsters as a top three source of annoyance," the report says.
It's been a hell of a year for airplane travel, with innumerable instances of misbehaving passengers. And there's no sign of travel slowing down any time soon — Deloitte's 2023 holiday travel survey found that nearly half of Americans are planning to travel.
Stay safe — and unbothered — out there, travelers.
