Gender, accent important for nervous fliers when hearing from the captain

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on December 22, 2017.

It’s the time of year when people will head in droves to airports hoping to fly to some special place and celebrate Christmas.

Today, in fact, airports may be experiencing the most traffic they have had all year.

For those who are nervous about flying the expectation of seeing family and friends or enjoying a vacation in the sun is enough motivation to propel them to fly anyway.

A recent survey says the voice of the captain has a lot to do with how calm or nervous passengers feel.

Remember when it was revealed people preferred listening to a woman’s voice for GPS instructions? In this survey a female voice emanating from the cockpit was considered reassuring for 85 per cent of passengers who typically feel nervous about flying.

It is not only the voice that matters though; accents play a part too.

According to the online booking system survey, the sound of a captain speaking “the Queen’s English” can reduce flying anxiety. Of those who identified themselves as “nervous fliers,” nearly half experience a sense of confidence if the voice has clear pronunciation.

If you have Scottish, Irish or Welsh roots, listen up. About 23 per cent of passengers consider the Scottish accent on the PA system on board an aircraft to be the sexiest. The next sexiest is a Northern Irish accent for 19 per cent of those surveyed and 10 per cent voted for a Welsh accent.

This is all rather interesting and could in fact affect what we hear emanating from the cockpit in future. We could be putting a lid on the days of “Captain Speaking” doing all the talking.

There are numerous ways for airlines to take this into the stratosphere.

From this survey a woman speaking the Queen’s English is the best scenario. With digital technology, however, there does not actually have to be a Scottish woman captain. Surely you could have any qualified captain and alter their speech to suit the circumstances.

We are living in the days when your telephone can translate to a different language so altering a voice should be simple.

Turn the voice of a male captain from the north of England, France, Alberta or Quebec into a female voice with careful pronunciation in the Queen’s English, and then add a little Scottish accent for the frills. That should have all passengers feeling calm and reassured too.

Now that we’ve got all that sorted we just need to address the hassle of parking at airports, checking-in for flights, going through security and passport control and, of course, dealing with airlines that lose your luggage.

Happy flying and Merry Christmas.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions, email her at gslade@medicinehatnews.com or call her at 403-528-8635.)

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