Should you wear PJs for comfort when you're flying this Christmas?
A traveller wears Hello Kitty pyjama pants at Myrtle Beach International Airport in South Carolina on November 26.
A LOT of us will be on the move this Christmas.
This year will officially be the busiest year in Cork Airport’s 64-year history, with passenger numbers expected to beat all previous records.
The three millionth passenger milestone was surpassed in October — nearly two months earlier than in 2024. And Dublin Airport has more than 150 destinations, and more than 1,000 weekly flights, covered in its winter schedule.
But how many of these passengers will opt to wear cosy pyjamas for their flights? None at all if US transportation secretary Sean Duffy has his choice.
Duffy has called for more civility in the skies and apparently this comes down to a simple ask: Don’t wear pyjamas in public.
Duffy’s request has set off a public debate about the acceptable standards of sartorial appearance — and the limits of what a government can urge its citizens to do.
Some may find his views miss an important point, which is that air travel is almost universally awful, so why try harder? Others — probably Duffy included — will counter that while we are more than what we wear, the clothes we choose are an expression of who we strive to be.
“I’m not trying to put the blame on anybody, I’m just asking us all to be better and do better and we’ll all have a more pleasant experience,” Duffy told reporters this week.
“You have brawls at the baggage claim, you have passengers berating gate agents. We have unruly passengers on airplanes,” he noted, before adding that “people dress up like they’re going to bed... Let’s try not to wear slippers and pyjamas as we come into the airport”.
The Golden Age of Travel starts with YOU and ME and ALL OF US!
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 23, 2025
Civility is on its way back 🇺🇸🛩️ pic.twitter.com/p250IgLLir
The Trump administration has been strangely focused on looking the part — be it defense secretary Pete Hegseth demanding physical fitness of his cleanly shaven warriors or president Donald Trump himself redecorating the Oval Office with gold trimmings as far as the eye can see.
It’s in that same vein that Duffy pledged to revive “The Golden Age of Travel,” with a recent nostalgia-infused ad referencing a more civilised age — long before budget carriers were invented and brawling passengers went viral on social media.
But to many a tormented traveller, Duffy’s call to civility runs counter to the obvious shortcomings of modern air travel: overflowing airports, flight delays, cramped quarters in the cabin and minimal on-board service.
And what if your PJs are first-class swag provided by the airline?
Apparently, one of the many perks of residing in the front of the plane is a cosy, branded outfit to soothe the weary premium traveller into a cocooned slumber.
Some passengers collect them, online forums hotly debate which airline has the best set, and customers parade them down the aisle as a badge of distinction that separates them from the huddled masses behind the curtain.
Delta Air Lines Inc.’s first-class swag sells for as much as $100 on eBay Inc., and some carriers have teamed up with brands such as Swiss luxury underwear maker Zimmerli or shirt maker Van Laack to create in-flight loungewear.
Emirates prides itself in having “moisturising sleepwear” featuring fabric infused with shea butter and argan oil that’s gently released as you move.
Either way, the rules of dressing on board have changed as much as the regulations for flying in the past few decades.
Gone are the days you could light up a cigarette anywhere on a plane, freely pack bottles of booze in your carry-on or amble into the cockpit for a chat with the captain at 30,000 feet.
With the democratisation of air travel and ever-cheaper tickets came an erosion of etiquette. Airports today are heaving with holidaymakers dressing in devil-may-care outfits as they brave a long-haul flight, backpackers wearing toe-curling sandals and families parading around in matching pyjamas.
Confirmed:
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) September 2, 2025
21M passengers flew with us last month - a new record August for Ryanair
(3M of you wore jeans 🙄)
One carrier that’s at the forefront of today’s no-frills, cheap-and-cheerless travel has turned the entire debate on its head. Ryanair Holdings Plc has taken to unapologetically trolling its own customers.
“We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone wearing jeans on a 4hr flight,” Ryanair quipped in a recent online post.
For now, Ryanair-branded PJs have yet to make it to market.
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