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FLYBE UNPACKS STUDENT LUGGAGE SECRETS!
08 december 2014
Leading regional airline discovers dirty laundry, study material and left-over food will wing its way home in festive luggage this Christmas
Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, also a STA Travel ‘Preferred Partner for Student and Youth Travel’, thought it would be fun to uncover just what is carried back home in all those bulging, heavy cases by many of the students who are currently gearing up to travel back to family and friends across the UK for the 2014 Christmas break.
Over 1,000 students across the nation have been contacted through a poll commissioned by the airline to find out what is likely to be discovered amongst this season’s luggage which results might, or might not, be something of a surprise.
This is of particular interest as the airline offers registered students travelling between their homes in Belfast City, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and their places of learning, the opportunity to travel with 40kg of luggage for the price of just one 20kg bag.
With Christmas shopping still mostly needing to be done, almost half will be packing up dirty laundry; while 12 per cent will return to the family fold bearing left-over food items, such as unused noodles and crackers - although 16 per cent of students report their priority will be to take home books and other study material to try and find the time to catch up with uni and college work.
Bags and suitcases will contain:
- Dirty laundry (49 per cent)
- Study material (16 per cent)
- Left-over food items (12 per cent)
- Partner’s hoodie (9 per cent)
- College souvenirs (9 per cent)
- Presents (5 per cent)
It is hardly surprising then that students across the board revealed that the biggest bug bear of travelling home for Christmas was trying to take too much luggage home (39 per cent), the length of time spent in motorway traffic and struggling on crowded trains (19 per cent), the length of time spent in travelling (17 per cent) and the cost of travel (12 per cent). 13 per cent said they weren’t planning to go home.
Full poll results are as follows:
| Question 1: What are you most likely to bring home over Christmas? | |
| Choice | Answer % |
| Dirty laundry | 49 |
| Presents | 5 |
| Study material | 16 |
| Partner’s hoodie | 9 |
| College souvenirs | 9 |
| Left-over food items from the uni year | 12 |
| Question 2: What do you miss most when you’re at uni? | |
| Choice | Answer % |
| Pet | 36 |
| Mum’s cooking | 21 |
| Getting my laundry done | 14 |
| Friends | 7 |
| Boyfriend/girlfriend | 10 |
| Being looked after | 12 |
| Question 3: What do you miss most about uni life when home for Christmas? | |
| Choice | Answer % |
| Nights out | 28 |
| Friends | 42 |
| The library life | 12 |
| Lectures | 6 |
| House sharing | 12 |
| Question 4: Would you rather spend Christmas with family or uni friends? | |
| Choice | Answer % |
| Family | 87 |
| Uni friends | 13 |
| Question 5: What’s the biggest bug-bear of travelling home over Christmas? | |
| Choice | Answer % |
| Heavy luggage | 5 |
| Trying to bring too much home | 34 |
| Cost | 12 |
| Not wanting to go home | 13 |
| Motorway traffic / crowded trains | 19 |
| Length of travel | 17 |
| Age Range | % | Responses |
| 18-24 | 73% | 756 |
| 25 and up | 22% | 228 |
| Gender | % | Responses |
| Female | 55% | 570 |
| Male | 44% | 456 |
About Flybe:
Flybe, Europe's largest regional airline – 170 routes serving 16 countries from 87 departure points, 36 UK/51 European airports* (all routes on sale Nov ’14 – Sep ‘15);
operates more UK domestic flights than any other airline (UKCAA Oct’13 - Sep ’14); is the largest scheduled airline by air traffic movements at Belfast City, Birmingham, Exeter, Inverness, Manchester, Newquay and Southampton airports (UK CAA Sep ’14); operates 69 aircraft – 45 Bombardier Q400, 13 Embraer 195 & 11 E175; codeshares with BA, Air France, Etihad, KLM and Finnair; has two franchise partners, Loganair and Stobart Air and was Amsterdam Schiphol’s Airline of the Year 2012 Europe.
* Flown under the Flybe brand (26 routes/13 airports exclusively served by Flybe’s franchise partner, Loganair: and six routes and five airports exclusively operated by franchise partner, Stobart Air)
