Modern civilisation should be half-proud. We’ve achieved more than our share of innovative miracles. Mankind has plonked Rovers on Mars, split the atom, and designed high-speed trains that travel faster than a Formula One racer.

Yet despite these advancements, modern air travel can still feel positively medieval. As scores of people across the region prepare for well-deserved end-of-year flights, the question is, what factors make the experience so unpleasant – and is there reason to hope things will improve?

WORST SEATS IN THE HOUSE

As a gawky, ageing man who clocks in at 189cm-tall, your average economy class seat is so cramped that my knees mash painfully against the sharp plastic frame of the chair ahead. 

When my friends – always the shorter ones, mind you – tell me to stop complaining, I like to remind them that pets flying in cargo travel in more comfort than humans. The International Air Transport Association states that each animal on-board “must have enough space to stand up, sit upright, lie in a natural position, and turn around while standing up”.

You can blame high overheads for the human squeeze, as airlines in recent years have sought to remain profitable by packing more rows on planes, even as your average seat size has shrunk up to 12.7cm in legroom on some brands since the 1980s.

Comfort might be possible if you could fly in peace, but I also have the world’s worst superpower: I attract crying babies. High-pitched kids inevitably draw close to my seat, like diapered, howling magnets. 

And it turns out their screams do more than strain the ears. A study just released by researchers at Jean Monnet University in France found that toddler’s shrieks cause the body temperature of people around them to spike – we literally get hot and bothered by their stress.

Not that most of us need the help. Increased rates of chaotically bumpy flights certainly aren’t helping. A few high-profile turbulent journeys, including on Singapore Airlines, have made the headlines, but they’re far from outliers. 

This dangerous phenomenon can even occur when there’s no stormy weather: So-called "clear-air" turbulence, invisible to pilots, has ballooned in rates by 55 per cent since 1979 in som...