You've planned your trip, fought your way through security, dragged your luggage on board and taken your seat - only to be greeted by cold air spitting into your face.
Some people like it to keep cool, while others turn the nozzle and switch it right out. But now an expert has revealed the health effects of turning the personal air con off.
Dr. Mark Gendreau, medical director and vice chair of emergency medicine at Lahey Medical Center-Peabody in Massachusetts is something of an expert about infectious diseases.
He explained to the website Travel + Leisure why it is we should keep the vent on.
“For airborne viruses, it is incredibly important to ventilate, since ventilation becomes your main means of control besides isolating the affected person,” he says.
Airborne viruses are transmitted by tiny droplets of nuclei that hang around in the air for as long as five hours.
Dr Gendreau says these droplets can’t in fact reach you if the air con is on, because a barrier has been formed around you which prevents this.
Many of us may attribute air con to the spread of germs - but this is incorrect.
He said: “The air that you’re typically breathing and exposed to is usually anywhere from two to five rows surrounding your seat.
“The flow pattern of air on an aircraft doesn’t necessarily work front to back, or back to front. It’s actually compartmentalised into various sections on the aircraft.”
So keeping the pesky air con on is a good thing, even if you do feel like you’re going to keel over with the cold.
And that’s why you should never turn the air conditioning above your seat off during a flight.
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