Brits prefer screaming children to obese passengers on flights

Would you rather sit next to a screaming child or an overweight passenger on a flight? It seems that most Brits would prefer to be placed beside a noisy youngster for the duration of a plane journey, a new survey has revealed.

Flight comparison website Jetcost.co.uk found that 32 per cent of Britons would least like to be sat next to an obese passenger as they don't want them encroaching into the seat space.

The poll found that 57 per cent of British travellers find themselves seated away from their party during a flight, while hoping they don't find themselves next to an obese person or a screaming child.

While overweight passengers were the least favoured, screaming children followed closely with 29 per cent and people with poor hygiene was third in the list of people Brits would not like to be sat next to on a flight. Someone scared of flying (17 per cent) and someone who doesn't stop talking for the whole flight (16 per cent) were also unpopular flight companions.

Delving a little deeper, the website asked Brits why they would not like to sit next to someone they considered to be overweight or obese, with the majority of respondents, 73 per cent, stating they wanted their seat space to themselves without having someone encroach into their space, as well as having their own.

European travellers were also asked the same question, with respondents from Spain (26 per cent) and France (23 per cent) agreeing that they'd least like to be seated next to an overweight passenger, while the most popular response from Italy was 'a screaming child' (18 per cent) and from German respondents, it was 'someone who doesn't stop talking' (16 per cent).

The website surveyed 2,548 British adults and 1,000 European adults.

Antoine Michelat, co-founder of Jetcost.co.uk, told AOL Travel: "We've always thought that screaming babies on a flight were the most annoying, but people are getting much better at coping with this situation as they understand that babies are babies and there's nothing that can be done to soothe them on a flight when their ears pop, or the air conditioning gets too much for them.

"Some companies are already looking into introducing a section on their planes for people over a certain weight, and while this is a good thing for those who don't want to find someone using their own seat and half of theirs too, it does run the risk of fat-shaming those who can't necessarily control their weight."

Who would you least like to sit next to on a flight? Tell us below.