People are open to paying flyers to stop reclining their seats on flights

As exciting as it is to fly away from rainy Ireland, boarding an airplane does come with its annoyances.

From flight delays to crying children and rotten plane food, there's a lot to complain about, but one of the most common things to irk passengers is when the person in front reclines their seat.

Of course, if you fly frequently then you've no doubt done it once or twice, but it's when a passenger insists on reclining their seat for the entire flight; then you have a problem.

Well, in a series of experiments by New York-based law professors Christopher Buccafusco and Christopher Jon Sprigman, the duo discovered that people would pay on average $18 (€16) to stop the person in front of them reclining their seat.

Another interesting finding is that people would be prepared to even buy on-flight snacks and drinks so they could have the comfort of more space.

The study found that 78 per cent of passengers are open to taking snacks or money off other passengers.

"Most airlines still hand out free drinks, and sometimes little bags of pretzels. Maybe instead they should charge for them and allow passengers to purchase them for one another," the study said.

"Everyone wins. Seat recline space is efficiently allocated. Airlines are marginally further from bankruptcy. And no one gets punched in the face.”