Why Flying Sucks (but doesn't have to)

This week I was interviewed by CBC Radio's Matt Galloway on The Current about flying: why people hate it, and how we got here.

Fact is, somewhere between the check-in counter and 35,000 feet, people often lose their minds. A fast-moving, crammed, pressurized cabin – not to mention the process of checking in and making your way through the theatre of security screening – is a lot to deal with.

As I discussed with Matt, there was a time when flying was aspirational, not transactional. It wasn’t just about cramming bums on seats and cutting costs by eliminating the free nuts. People dressed up to fly in suits and hats, and gourmet meals were served with tablecloths. Those days are long gone. The U.S. Transportation Secretary recently made the news with a cringe-inducing statement suggesting people should dress up again and return to this Golden Age of Flying, transferring the blame for airline incidents onto passengers instead of the system they’re put through.

Airline security is an absolute farce. There’s little consistency, we’re still removing shoes decades after one lunatic hatched a loony plan, and in some countries (mostly the USA), the TSA treats passengers with the respect of cattle in line at the abattoir. Various studies and trials have repeatedly shown the entire safety screening process to be ineffective at actually stopping a motivated passenger from getting onboard to do harm. Security theatre adds some reassurance, but a whole lot more stress and anxiety. I recently saw a mother arguing with airport security in Toronto about travelling with bottles of pumped breast milk. The baby was right there, but the bottles were over 100 ml, so it was clearly not milk but an explosive substance that would destroy the plane (likely detonated from a diaper).

All this stress chews people up. We become impatient, agitated, annoyed. Then throw in flight delays, poor communication, time changes, crying babies, and missed connections. Cram everyone on the plane and the real miracle is that the vast majority of people manage to keep it together.

The passenger in front of me is farting. One ripper after another. We can all smell it, but we can’t do anything about it. I put my nose in my shirt and smell my body odour, which isn’t great on a long flight but is better than the purple haze wafting over the seat. We’ve all had the restless kid kicking the back of the chair. My daughter is one of those kids. When we fly, I spend a great deal of time slapping her knees down as she contorts in her seat, and meeting the glare of the passenger in front of her. There are other challenges:

• The Recliner vs. The Knee Defender
• The Armrest Duel
• The Overhead Bin Squeeze
• The Oblivious Reading Light
• The Fart Monster

Psychologists call it deindividuation, a fancy term for: “I don’t know anyone here, and nobody knows me, so I’m going to behave however I damn well please.”

This kind of anonymity removes social consequences, but unfortunately, it doesn’t remove social impact. Flight attendants – one of the most under-appreciated professions, along with teachers and bus drivers – have to manage all this without it boiling over. When it does, planes are forced to land and police are called in. If that’s never happened to you (and it’s never happened to me, despite the prodding at the start of the CBC interview), you can credit a flight attendant. They’re heroes, these people. We should treat them as such.

So, what can we do about all of this?

Design a transportation system with humans in mind:
Add more natural light and quiet spaces in airports, make the seating more comfortable, provide chargers and Wi-Fi, create play areas for kids, use relaxing scents and music, and do whatever you can to make it a pleasant space to waste a few hours. Some airports do this better than others. Fly through Changi in Singapore and you’ll see what I mean. In Canada, compare the experience of flying through Toronto’s Pearson versus Vancouver’s YVR.

Increase communication and control:
There have been improvements with text message updates, but airlines are often slow to respond when something goes awry. It’s not the gate attendant’s fault, and screaming at them isn’t going to change anything. The major issue with air travel comes down to a lack of control. Once we’re in the system, we’re told where to line up, what to remove from our cases, where to sit, when to eat, when to sleep, where to stand, and when to use the bathroom. More control – or even a perceived sense of control – goes far.

Incentivize good behaviour:
There’s a lot of stick and very little carrot. For example, if your carry-on is too big (even though the person in front of you just walked through with a bigger carry-on), it gets checked. But what about giving a reward for being courteous and helpful? A small symbolic token of appreciation because everyone boarded smoothly. Gold stars for you! Thank you for not clipping your nails on the plane. Gamify the process; it actually works.
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I remember giving a keynote years ago for operations staff at YVR, and I was super impressed by their dedication and awareness in creating a better airport experience. It’s why YVR wins awards and is my favourite Canadian airport. As I told the CBC, flying is a modern logistical and technological miracle, and it’s come a long way since people used to chain-smoke and crane their necks to see the bad in-flight movie. With new advances in technology and studies of passenger behaviour, I think it’s going to keep getting better.
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Now sit back, lay off the tomato juice (that stuff is toxic in a pressurized cabin) load up a bad movie, and enjoy.