Stinking to high heaven

■ It is startling to think that in this ultra-modern age we still have an issue with personal hygiene. Nowhere is this problem more striking and prevalent than in our airline industry.

Just to be perfectly clear, our water service is operational 24/7 nowadays.

This means that regardless of when we want to fly somewhere, we can actually have access to soap and water before we go.

I would have real understanding if air travel had been introduced in the Middle Ages when washing wasn’t particularly high on people’s agendas – but in 2018?

Add to this the constant stream of TV and radio ads promising deodorants that won’t let you down or won’t give you up or whatever. Most importantly they won’t let you smell.

There is nothing quite like the sickly smell of body odour. It’s all consuming and impossible to ignore.

It is all the more annoying due to the fact that it is entirely preventable. A shower or bath followed by a generous helping of suitable deodorant and there you go, you’re my best friend.

However, there seems to be a cohort out there who, for whatever reason, see this simple task as too much trouble and in the already claustrophobic atmosphere of a red-eye flight, BO is king of smells.

Travellers must be acutely aware we are travelling in a metal tube with maybe 200 other individuals where getting hot and bothered is almost mandatory without bringing further fumes to the party.

So I have a simple solution to this lingering problem. Travellers who have no issue boarding a plane while glowing with body odour will be joined by passengers of like mind.

These guys will then be put in one of those steel bins that the luggage goes into (seated, of course).

This will be hermetically sealed and placed in the hold. Maybe then these individuals will actually get the message as to how much their lack of basic hygiene affects others – particularly when travelling by airplane.

Eamon Kearney Dublin 13