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Anyone who has flown in recent years knows that the way some people show up to the airport is ridiculous. I fly on hundreds of flights a year and I have seen people in bathing suits, pajamas, robes, and sometimes missing articles of clothing altogether. It’s disgusting to watch someone walk across the airport barefoot and perhaps just as appalling to see them with their stomachs and other body parts exposed. I don’t often agree with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, but it might be time for a return to some civility.
Now, this is not to say that suits, gloves, dresses, and fancy hats should be de rigueur. But, wearing your pajamas or bathing suit to the airport should also land folks unable to fly until they change into something more appropriate. Sometimes this is not just about propriety. Who wants someone else’s bare butt or sweaty back pressed into a seat that you might have to occupy.
The worst offender I have ever seen was at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) (pictured above). The Starbucks by Gate B5 saw a woman dressed in see-through pants, no underwear, and with a furry wrap instead of a shirt (she was thankfully wearing a bra). Because her pants were transparent you could see everything in the front and back. Parents pulled their children away and she seemed to think her outfit was great.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is urging travelers to bring back a more polished approach to flying. Pointing to a clear increase in disruptive behavior on planes, the agency has introduced a new initiative aimed at promoting greater civility in the skies. “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You” campaign is meant to “jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel,” according to the DOT.
USA Today shares that it’s not just fashion. The pandemic reset people’s behavior in ways that we may never recover from. The DOT cites 13,800 unruly passenger incidents since 2021, which is a 400% increase since 2019. Frighteningly, one in five flight attendants experienced “physical incidents” in 2021.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants travelers to ask themselves these simple questions the next time they’re at the airport:
- Are you helping a pregnant woman or the elderly with placing their bags in the overhead bin?
- Are you dressing with respect?
- Are you keeping control of your children and helping them through the airport?
- Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants?
- Are you saying please and thank you in general?
I can’t say I disagree with any of that.
Anthony’s Take: I think a minimum dress code should be enforced and a consistent “no-fly” list across carriers should be maintained. While we may never go back to suits and ties, there is no reason for fights, general mayhem, and dressing like you just stepped off the beach.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
Given the propensity of this regime to abuse government powers to hurt people, no thank you. Focus your attention elsewhere.