Holidaymakers urged not to reach airports too early

An academic in the US has published a new book that may cause holidaymakers from the UK and elsewhere to reconsider the time they arrive at airports.

Of course, convention is to give yourself plenty of breathing space when it comes to getting to an airport, thereby ensuring that you're not rushing around at the last minute in order to make your flight.

However, an academic in the US has questioned the wisdom of this approach, arguing that it is not the sensible way to approach travelling.

In fact, he claimed that turning up late or even missing your flight is not necessarily a bad thing.

Maths professor Jordan Ellenberg conceded that by arriving three hours early for a flight ought should ensure that you never miss your plane.

However, he warns that this can lead to holidaymakers wasting valuable hours of their lives wandering aimlessly around duty free and snoozing in airport lounges.

The professor observed that there is an optimal time to turn up to an airport that will help to minimise the amount of time that is wasted.

Precisely what time, he said, “depends on how you personally feel about the relative merits of missing planes and wasting time”.

He adds: “If in the course of a lifetime you literally never miss a flight, then you may not have the best strategy.”

The professor also said that this counterintuitive maths can be applied to other aspects of life, including dating.

"Think of the people you might consider dating. Then you ask yourself why would somebody be in that pool," he commented.

“It might be because they are handsome and it might be because they are agreeable."

He added that among people who are not overwhelming handsome, the reason they are on the radar is because they are agreeable.

Posted by Robin Western

Published 01 Jun 2014

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