Flyers Agree: Sitting Near Someone Eating Smelly Food Stinks

If you hate sitting next to someone on an airplane who is eating smelly food, you are not the only one.
Airplane Food

You know what stinks? Sitting next to someone on a plane who cracks open a container of super-smelly food. Memo to pungent-meal-loving travelers: The people seated near you, especially the unfortunate passenger(s) sharing your armrest(s) and immediate airspace, do not want to spend the duration of the flight smelling your food.

Forty-eight percent of airplane passengers surveyed by the airport shuttle service GO Airport Express said they considered it rude to bring food with strong odors onto planes, Mashable reports. Interestingly, more women (52 percent) than men (43 percent) disapproved of the behavior. Meanwhile, 12 percent of those surveyed thought the practice should be banned by airlines altogether.

Some of those surveyed said passengers seated near someone enjoying stinky food should be given the option to switch seats, but that might not be a terribly workable solution on a full flight.

A scant 9 percent of those surveyed said they believed people should be able to bring any food they wanted — smelly or not — onto a plane, while 31 percent said they had no opinion on the matter at all. Who nose why?

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