Air passenger behavior – Israeli airline passengers better behaved than Europeans

Israeli airline passengers more ‘tolerant’ than Europeans, a survey by British Airways shows.

A survey conducted by British Airways, the national airline and flag carrier of the United Kingdom and one of the biggest airlines in Europe, has found that Israeli airline passengers are more “tolerant” than their European counterparts. 

The survey commissioned by British Airways on “passenger travel habits in Israel and Europe” showed that, “notwithstanding their stereotypical image of having short tempers,” Israeli travellers are “more tolerant airline passengers than their European counterparts,” The Jerusalem Post, the English-language newspaper of Israel, has reported. 

It was seen in the survey that Israelis typically spend less time packing for their trips than do European passengers, but arrive much earlier at the airport for flights – “apparently for duty-free shopping.” 

The British Airways’ survey said that “Israelis tend to leave the packing for the last moment – with 26% of the passengers packing on the actual day of the flight.”

In contrast, only 4% to 11% of Europeans “leave packing to the last moment.”

The poll revealed that a big majority of Israelis (66%) chose to arrive early for flights, “the desire for duty-free shopping” being the main reason for that. 

The Jerusalem Post quoted Yael Katan, country commercial manager of British Airways in Israel, as saying that she was not at all surprised by the statistics provided by the survey. Yael Katan added: “Israelis really like to buy. I used to be a flight attendant, and I remember that Israelis always bought more duty-free things than people of other nationalities did.”  

The British Airways’ poll on “passenger travel habits in Israel and Europe” brought to light the fact that Israelis were afraid of long security lines. But The Jerusalem Post quoted Yael Katan as reacting to this “fear factor” thus: “Israeli passengers do not have to worry about at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5. In Tel Aviv, security takes longer because security standards in Israel are more stringent, as they take time to investigate every passenger.” 

A good majority of passengers in Europe and Israel find their seats “being kicked in-flight” the most disturbing aspect of air travel, the survey showed. The second highest irritant to Israelis is parents’ not attending to their children – and this was true for many passengers from Europe, too. 

With a view to tackling the problem of the annoyance caused by parents’ not attending to their children, British Airways “is doing the utmost to entertain passengers, with personal video screens with on-demand capacity, and activity packs to occupy kids,” Yael Katan said.  

The random survey on “passenger travel habits in Israel and Europe” of 3,200 passengers, who flew by British Airways flights in the last 12 months, was conducted in Israel by Mutagim, and in Europe by YouGov in 9 countries – Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Italy, Sweden and Denmark.  

British Airways said in a statement that it commissioned the survey in order to commemorate the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in March 2008, The Terminal 5 had, according to British Airways, initially experienced “a difficult  period, plagued by “absolute havoc with flight cancellations and bags lost.”