According to a new study from a flight comparison site, two-thirds of UK fliers admit to not paying attention during the flight safety demonstration on-board. When asked why, the majority simply deemed it ‘unnecessary’.

New research has revealed that flight safety demonstrations may be going unnoticed by UK fliers, as a new study has found that just under two-thirds of Britons claim that they don’t pay attention to the demonstrations given on-flight.

The study, conducted by flight comparison site www.Jetcost.co.uk, aimed to look more into the experiences of UK fliers when on-board an aircraft. 1,389 people aged 18 and over subsequently took part in the poll, all of whom had flown on an aircraft overseas within the past 2 years.

Those taking part in the study were asked, “When flying, do you pay attention to the safety demonstrations given on-board by cabin crew or a pre-recorded video?” to which just under two thirds, 63%, of respondents answered ‘no’.  Just a quarter, 26%, said ‘yes’; whilst the remaining 11% of respondents stated that they ‘sometimes’ paid attention.

Those who said they didn’t pay attention were asked why this was the case. The majority, 51%, claimed to feel that the safety demonstrations were simply ‘unnecessary’, whilst a third, 31%, thought that they would be ‘reminded of them, in case of real emergency’ anyway.

Furthermore, 12% of these respondents claimed that the safety demonstrations ‘unnerved them’ as they were ‘nervous fliers’; and so felt it best to ignore the thought of having to put them into practise.

When asked if they made themselves aware of where emergency exits were on an aircraft after boarding, over half, 53%, of the respondents answered ‘no’. Furthermore, a third, 31%, claimed to have no idea where life vests were stored on-board aircrafts.
When asked if they were happy with the level of security measures currently in place in UK airports, the majority of those taking part, 62%, said ‘yes’. Of those who said ‘no’, a quarter, 26%, actually believed that airports in the UK had ‘too many’ security procedures currently in place.

Jerome Cohen-Scali, Co-Founder of Jetcost.co.uk, commented on the findings:
“Safety procedures are put in place on aircrafts for a reason, and it’s vital that even frequent fliers pay attention to demonstrations before take- off. Whilst they can seem ‘unnecessary’ or even unnerving to watch for nervous fliers, they’re an important aspect of any flight, and are vital in ensuring that everyone on-board knows what to do in the rare case of an emergency.”