Not the Mile High Club: One in 10 travelers has sex in an airport, survey finds

About 1 in 10 American air travelers reports having had sex of some kind at an airport, compared with about 8 percent who are members of the Mile High Club, according to an important new survey conducted by a flight-shopping website.

Of those who had some sort of "sexual encounter," 42 percent reported that it took place in a public restroom, while 28 percent got busy in the "storage cupboards" (?) and 14 percent "under a coat." Twelve percent coupled in the VIP lounge, which at least makes some sense; 17 percent claim to have been caught in the act by airport staff.

The survey is the work of US.Jetcost.com, which tallied the results from 4,915 Americans who were 18 or older and had flown at least once in the past two years.

Three-quarters of those responded that they had some free time in the airport, and so the website followed up to learn how that down time was used. Of those respondents who found romance among jet bodies and tail fins, the majority engaged in sex with their traveling partner (87 percent). Only 5 percent hooked up with a stranger.

By comparison, flight attendants with Norwegian told Bloomberg News that Mile High Club inductees appeared on their flights about once a month. The estimated success rate was about 30 percent, and it was not uncommon to see people bolting for the lavatory who appeared to have been mere strangers when they took their seats, the flight attendants said.

"Sometimes I just want to give the passengers a ton of Purel and say, 'What are you thinking?' " one was quoted as saying. And that about says it all.

Is this clickbait? Yes. Reliable? Who knows? And yet we must because it was too amusing and/or depressing to let pass.

Most respondents in the airport survey, as you might expect, were content to satisfy themselves shopping in the terminal (54 percent); having a drink or getting something to eat (67 percent); playing games on a smartphone or some other device (41 percent); streaming TV shows and movies (39 percent), or reading emails (11 percent).