How do you pass the time while waiting for a flight? Read a book? Browse duty free? Hit the bar? Or something more intimate..?
According to the so-called “findings” of a company called Jetcost.co.uk (they’re a flight comparison website), released this week, one in 10 of us admits to having had an "amorous encounter" in an airport.
Rarely has a claim been met with such universal derision at Telegraph Travel. The subject line of its email, about what people do while waiting for a flight, should have been warning enough.
“The Rise of the 'Airport Club'”, it said. “1 in 10 Britons Has Had a Sexual Encounter in an Airport”
It rapidly got worse.
2,521 people had apparently replied to this survey. Of them, “nine per cent... admitted that they’d had a sexual encounter while in an airport before."
Of course.
“The most popular place in which people joined the ‘airport club’ in such a way was ‘airport toilets’ (76 per cent), followed by ‘storage area/room’ (21 per cent).
Oh really?
Slightly more sensibly, there were statistics on people's favourite activities while waiting at airports. Eating and drinking was the most popular (79 per cent), followed by reading (52 per cent), and duty free shopping (30 per cent).
But the real thrust - if you'll excuse the phrase - of the press release was the rise of so-called amorous airport encounters.
"In order to compare how common sex in an airport was to those who had joined the ‘mile-high club’, all respondents were also asked if they’d ever had a sexual encounter on an aircraft, to which only 4 per cent admitted that they had. 31 per cent of these had been caught in the act."
Spare us, please.
But no...
“Anyone who claimed they’d had sex in an airport was asked why they had done so, to which 32 per cent said they were ‘in the holiday spirit’ and 27 per cent said that they wanted the ‘thrill’ of not knowing if they’d get caught.”
Ah, that famous holiday spirit that encourages people to take their clothes off in public places? A quick straw poll of our writers found no one who had ever found sufficient “spirit” to do the same.
So either we’re bucking the average, some of us aren’t being honest, or the survey’s results should be approached with, let’s say, caution.
Are we being too cynical? Let us know in the poll.
What do you do while waiting for a flight?
Some airports make an extraordinary effort to make people's time in transit more of pleasurable. From butterfly enclosures at Singapore's Changi Airport to sleeping pods in Abu Dhabi, there are now some genuinely innovative ways to entertain passengers. See more of the fifty best things to do at the airport here.
But what do you do to pass the time? Are you content just to read, shop, or get a last-minute drink or snack? Or do you have any other quirky ways you like to spend your time? Do airports offer enough to keep passengers happy?
Let us know in the comments below, or tweet us @TelegraphTravel.
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