Melbourne, June 26 A survey of Australian travellers has revealed that dirty toilets, overweight passengers and rude flight attendants are among what the passengers hate the most while flying.

The Travel.com.au survey, which involved over 1700 Australian travellers, revealed flight delays as the top air travel grievance.

Other annoyances included chatterboxes, poor passenger hygiene, and reclining seats.

"The days when airplane food was the biggest bugbear of passengers are obviously gone - it didn't even score a place in the list," News.com.au quoted Travel.com.au's general manager Lisa Ferrari as saying.

"Instead, nowadays it seems the biggest flying frustration comes before passengers have even boarded the plane," she added.

The report further reveals that lack of information about a delayed flight was found to be the most annoying part for passengers.

"As far as I am concerned they can apologise for a delay all they like, but unless you tell me what's going on and how long it's going to take to fix it, I'm gonna (sic) get annoyed," a survey respondent said.

The fourth most frustrating travel experience, according to air travellers, was to sit next to an overweight passenger who encroached on their own seats.

The findings reinforced the findings of a survey conducted by travel.com.au last year, which found 53 per cent of Australians thought obese people should have to purchase two economy class tickets if they couldn't fit into one.

"Evidently this remains a contentious issue for Australian travellers," Ferrari said.

She said that she also agreed with the 48 per cent of respondents who were frustrated by people who reclined their seats all the way back on short flights.

"Given that it can severely cut into your already limited seat space, I'd throw my support behind a decision by the airlines to regulate when you can and can't recline your seats," she said

"Extenuating circumstances aside, I'm just not sure it's necessary on an hour flight," she added.

Australian Travellers' top 8 Flying Frustrations

1. Flight delays

2. People putting their seats back during short flights

3. Being trapped in your seat by a sleeping passenger

4. Overweight passengers who encroach on your own seat

5. The poor hygiene of fellow passengers

6. Being stuck next to a passenger who won't stop talking

7. Dirty toilets

8. Rude flight attendants (ANI)