FROM the "unimportant but mildly diverting" category of travel stories comes news that male 30-something Europeans, travelling alone for leisure in economy class make the best passengers. So say the results of a survey of over 700 flight attendants from 85 countries by Skyscanner, a flight search engine. You can make your own minds up as to why this might be—Skyscanner gives no indication—but I guess such passengers don't generally require much looking after, can manage their own bags and will be travelling in a perky mood. The survey also asked respondents to name the passenger habits that annoyed them most. Over a quarter said it was the clicking of fingers to get a flight attendant's attention (do people still do this? In 2012? Do they then pat the attendant on the bottom and wink?). In second place was getting out of your seat too early (13%), followed by putting too many bags into the overhead locker (11%).