A survey of 2749 Brits who have flown in the last two years has revealed that one in seven randy passengers (14 per cent) attempted to flirt with flight attendants. But most flopped dismally, with a mere six per cent of those who flirted being successful in swapping contact details and meeting up again.

And although 37 per cent of the mile-high philanderers flattered themselves that their flight attendant had flirted back, another 23 per cent said that their target had looked a little taken aback, and a red-faced 11 per cent admitted the cabin crew member had tried to avoid them for the rest of the flight. No complimentary nuts for either party there then – although men are twice as likely as women to flirt with cabin crew staff according to the survey by flight comparison website www.jetcost.co.uk

Company co-founder Antoine Michelat said: “Hooking up with a flight attendant seems to be a bit of a fantasy for many Britons. It makes you wonder if this is because of how they’re portrayed in the movies. Either way, it’s not particularly nice for the cabin crew when it happens. It’s not the wisest idea either because you’re then trapped on the plane with them for a few hours, so if it goes horribly wrong, or you don’t get the reaction you expected, you’re stuck in a confined space with them until the flight lands.”

The findings were part of a broader survey to discover how passengers kept themselves entertained on flights. The top five responses were listening to music (73 per cent); talking to fellow passengers (68 per cent); watching in-flight movies (56 per cent); sleeping (49 per cent); and reading (35 per cent).

A breakdown of the 14 per cent who admitted flirting with cabin crew showed that 37 per cent “found them attractive”, while 21 per cent had “heard stories about flight attendants” and 18 per cent were responding to a dare.

But a follow-up study suggests that airborne Brits may be trailing in the slip-stream of other nations when it comes to making amorous advances to cabin crew. When 1000 people from other European countries were asked if they’d ever flirted with flight attendants, a whopping 36 per cent of Spanish respondents said ‘yes’, along with 22 per cent from Germany and 15 per cent from France. However, only 4 per cent of Italians admitted to an attempted dalliance with crew. So much for the myth of the Italian stallion…