The Diners Club Inflight Index* has shown that when flying, business travellers prefer to sit next to a messy eater as opposed to the family with noisy children.

Women prefer to sit next to the chatter as opposed to the snorer, while men would prefer the restless traveller over someone who sounds sick or looks contagious.  The traveller with body odour was the least preferred stereotype by all airline travellers.

James Atkins, General Manager Marketing, Diners Club Australia, said when it comes to how people occupy themselves while flying, the differences between business and leisure travellers becomes apparent.

"Typically most people like to watch the movies, listen to the radio and do their exercises, but 15 per cent of business travellers confessed to also trying to see what the person next to them was working on.

"55 per cent of business travellers are also likely to read the inflight magazine cover to cover, including completing the trivia quiz.

"Over 20 percent of leisure travellers though admitted to going to the bathroom just for something to do," he said.

Mr Atkins said 18 per cent of Australians had travelled for business purposes in the last twelve months as compared to 61 per cent of Australians travelling domestically or internationally for a holiday.

"Only 5 per cent have travelled internationally for business and 43 per cent of people have not travelled by air at all in the last twelve months," said Mr Atkins.

"Business travellers have a range of attitudes towards their travel experience.  85 per cent believe that travelling just creates more work when they get back to the office, whilst 75 per cent see business travel as a good excuse to get out of the office.

"A staggering 51 per cent of men see business travel as a means of giving them a break from their family.

More key findings include:

        * The research was conducted by Woolcott Research between 4th and 6th November 2005, using OmniAccess Consumer, a fortnightly national omnibus survey, using a representative and statistically valid sample (confidence interval of 3%) of 1000 Australians adults aged 16+.