New research by an online travel agency in the UK has revealed Britain’s biggest airport annoyances, with queues, expensive purchase prices and busy terminals voted as the top three most irritating aspects of the airport experience. The majority of British travelers also found the airport experience ‘very’ stressful.
Online travel agency www.sunshine.co.uk carried out the research as part of an ongoing study into the holiday experiences of the British public. The poll surveyed 1,952 people who were aged 18 and over and that had traveled in the past six months.
When asked to select all of the most annoying aspects of the airport experience from a list, or state their own if their irritations didn’t appear, the top 10 airport annoyances were revealed as follows:
1. Queues – 79%
2. Price of food/drink/items – 68%
3. How busy they are – 47%
4. Hyperactive children – 32%
5. How far apart everything is – 27%
6. Waiting for baggage – 24%
7. Priority boarders – 17%
8. Rude staff – 16%
9. Handing over boarding pass for purchases – 11%
10. Strictness of procedures – 5%
When asked how stressful they found the airport experience to be, in general, the majority of respondents, 53%, said ‘very’. However, when asked why this was the case, 66% of these people admitted that it was because they were rushing or didn’t leave themselves enough time. Out of the respondents, 9% admitted they found the airport experience ‘very stressful’ because they were anxious about the flight that they had ahead of them.
Chris Clarkson, managing director of sunshine.co.uk, said, “The airport experience needn’t be a stressful one. If it’s your outbound trip and you’re starting off your holiday, stressing about everything isn’t going to get your trip off to the best start. Plan ahead to avoid any stressful situations; leave the house early to get there in plenty of time, pay a little extra for priority boarding, check in online if you only have hand luggage and pack your own, security-friendly food and snacks to take.
“A lot of the airport annoyances are simply unavoidable. They are busy places and you are bound to be faced with crowds, hyperactive children and some of the more unfriendly members of staff that can be found in airports, but don’t let any of that put a dampener on your holiday. Just look forward to kicking back on that beach and let any irritations fizzle out.”