How to Make Airline Travel Better

This week’s Indie Travel Challenge prompt asks, what is one thing that would make airline travel better?

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of airline travel as it is now. But how to improve it? I don’t think I could possibly limit it to one thing, so I made a list (not necessarily a practical one):

• Remove some of the more intrusive security scan measures. As far as I can tell, they typically slow down the line with few results. Do we really need to be taking off our shoes? Many countries don’t require this.
• Speed up the security line by a lot to avoid having to get to the airport ungodly early. Don’t know how this could be accomplished.
• Increase leg room. Even in economy!
• Make seats more comfortable. More like the leather recliner in my parents’ house, please.
• Better food and more frequent beverage service. Also, let’s make all that stuff free while we’re at it.
• Personal entertainment systems in every seat. Not just for long haul flights.
• Improve air quality. That recycled air is nasty. It makes me queasy on long flights. I have heard that some research is being done to work on this.
• Seat airbags on every plane. Did you know that most airline crashes happen during takeoff or landing, and are what is considered ‘survivable’? And did you also know that airbags have been created for airplane seats? Yet only about 40,000 seats – not planes – have them (you can see which planes have them here). It would be great if airlines could get on board with those – so in case you are very unlucky to be in a crash, you will be way less likely to get hurt at all.

Some of these are obviously pretty far-fetched (though I didn’t even add my wacky ideas like make airplanes 300% faster), but some may happen in the not-too-distant future. Realistically, I don’t mind extra fees for extra services if they can keep me from having to pay a lot more for my flight. Baggage fees and food fees and all that make a lot of sense economically. However, I think two things should always remain free: water, and using the bathroom. Hopefully some improvements will be made so that I don’t absolutely dread taking a plane in the future.

What would you change about airline travel?