This is Why You Shouldn’t Remove Your Shoes When Flying

Man sitting on airplane
Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash

If you think about it, airplanes are a weird space. You are basically placed in a flying metal box with strangers, and that becomes your home for a few hours. It is where you will eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom, and for some, it may even be where they work or do their skincare routine. 

The casual, and often intimate, environment within an airplane can lead to people sometimes getting a little too comfy (and we don’t just mean nodding off on their neighbor’s shoulder). One thing that travelers should avoid doing onboard is removing their shoes. This is why.

Swelling

Being 38,000 feet above sea level can do some unusual things to your body. One of these is having your legs and feet swell up from sitting for a long period of time, allowing all the blood to pool. If you decide to take off your shoes during the flight, you may find that you struggle to put them back on. 

Cleanliness

While the air on planes is supremely clean, the same cannot always be said for the rest of the cabin. Depending on the turn-around time between flights, cleaning the cabin may be as basic as simply throwing out the trash or quickly wiping down the bathroom door handle. Carpets are typically only vacuumed if time allows, and planes usually go through a deep cleaning once every 4-6 weeks. Thus, going barefoot may result in picking up bacteria and viruses—or worse: a fungal infection. 

Nobody wants that, so next time you fly, consider keeping your shoes on.