Most Air Travellers Actually Do Like to Make a Little Small Talk

Have you ever flown solo and been terrified to talk to the person next to you, because you’re worried you’ll be viewed as some desperately needy, lonely old weirdo? Well it turns out, you’re obsessing over nothing.

According to Time’s report on a survey on air travel from Trip Advisor, people don’t actually seem to mind a little small talk during their flight:

With over 4,300 respondents, the study reported that 73% of travelers think a bit of small talk is acceptable. In fact, many travelers would prefer to chat with a woman—for the 45% of respondents who have gender preferences for their seatmates, 87% would prefer a female neighbor.

I feel like the survey needs to include one giant disclaimer about making small talk with people on planes—it’s cool as long as they’re not weird. We’ve all sat next to the weirdo on the plane who wants to tell you about how he’s flying to Omaha so he can get away from the cats who are trying to read his mind and it’s definitely not a picnic.

There’s also plenty of other crap people really do hate about flying.

Less of a new trend are travelers’ complaints about limited legroom, with 73% of the survey’s respondents listing uncomfortable seats as a complaint. The two next most popular complaints were costly airline fees and unpredictable flight delays, cited by 66% and 45%, respectively.