Bananas in Pyjamas are a Headache for Airlines. By Yeoh Siew Hoon ~ thetransitcafe.com Friday, 8th June 2007

What do you do if you don’t like the underwear of your fellow passengers? You buy your own plane, of course -

The Wrap is nominating this as National Pyjama Week to mark the number of nightwear stories coming our way in the past few days.

This week The Wrap has been in Hanoi, spending a couple of evenings on the Terrace at the magnificent Sofitel Metropole hotel watching the people of Hanoi taking their late evening exercise – in pyjamas, of course.

People here regard pyjamas as perfectly acceptable attire for a late night stroll in the balmy summer evenings and it causes no offence to fellow strollers.

But put people in pyjamas on airplanes and you are asking for trouble.

So much so that a Hong Kong tycoon has ordered his own US$153 million Boeing 787 Dreamliner just so that he can have sweet dreams in a 300-seat jet and not have to worry about fellow passengers preparing for bed.

Tycoon Joseph Lau, one of Asia’s richest men, says an unpleasant experience in a First Class cabin prompted his private jet purchase.

He told the South China Morning Post he was horrified when a fellow passenger stripped to his underwear and changed into pyjamas in front of him.

In Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, three Australian businessmen have been detained after allegedly engaging in rowdy, drunken and sexual behaviour while running around in pyjamas during a 13-hour Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi.

Two of the men are being held in a desert prison while awaiting trial.

Pyjamas appeared as another value-add for premium passengers sleeping on flat beds but the Wrap wonders whether travellers would sleep easier if they didn’t have to face the nightmare of watching fellow fliers wrestle with their underwear.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia’s most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com . Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.