No lounging around for Irish executives in transit

IRISH executive air travellers are the least likely to fall asleep in European airports than other business travellers. They are also the least likely to get annoyed while waiting for flights.

However, Irish business travellers are more prone to losing luggage than British executives but are more fortunate than other nationalities, according to a survey by Scandinavian Service Partners.

Only 17 per cent of Irish executives have taken a nap in airports compared with 23 per cent of British executives. This rises to 29 per cent for German executives and to 30 per cent for French executives. The Spanish are the most likely to snooze, with 42 per cent in the survey saying they have fallen asleep.

Irish travellers appear to be more placid than their counterparts from other countries. Only Is per cent say they get annoyed when waiting for flights compared with 26 per cent of British executives and 25 per cent from the US. The French are the most irritable, with 42 per cent saying they get annoyed while waiting.

The British travellers have the most fortunate experience with their luggage. The survey showed that 10 per cent have lost their luggage compared with 17 per cent of the Irish. The Swedish had the worst experience, with 25 per cent reporting lost luggage.

Irish executives are not the most industrious while waiting at airports but neither are they the laziest. The survey shows that 39 per cent of US executives and 37 per cent of British executives work either often or always at airports.

The figure for the Irish was 30 per cent but this is well above 9 per cent for Spanish executives. The survey also shows that 48 per cent of women executives never work at airports, well above the 35 per cent of males.

Scandinavian Service Partners, which provides food and drink at Dublin Airport, and operates in 40 international airports, carried out the survey in the January/February period. It covered 8,000 people, 2,000 of whom were in Dublin Airport.