Should you suit up before you take flight?

It’s an issue that ruffles a lot of feathers: how well should you dress when you fly?

Long gone are the days when everybody wears their Sunday best when they step on an aeroplane, but surely there must be some standards.

Have we devolved to the point where shorts, cut-off T-shirts and sandals are AOK in the air? I think not.

It’s a perennial issue that has been raised again in this article by Ariana Arghandewal, who notes that several airlines have ejected passengers who they consider to be underdressed for the occasion of sitting in a carbon-fibre box to get from point A to point B.

Noting that some passengers get treated differently, she sensibly suggests that the standard should be universal — although that might come as a bit of a shock to those people up the front of the plane who are presented with pyjamas to wear on longhaul flights.

But if we enforce standards on planes, do we also enforce them elsewhere that tourists go?

Cruise ships certainly have rules about attire in their fancier dining areas.

And many pubs and clubs enforce a dress code already, but that’s usually more about trying to engineer the crowd they attract. (I was once refused entry to a venue for being “overdressed”, which I took as meaning “too old”.)

In a perfect world, the way you dress should be irrelevant — as long as all the bits that might offend others are covered. But the world is not perfect, and when you buy a ticket you enter into a contract that lets the airline make the rules

You can complain if you’re chucked off the plane, but it’s highly unlikely to fly.

The best thing is look as presentable as you can, with reference to your point of destination. Unless you’re going to need a three-piece suit when you get where you are going, you shouldn’t wear one on the plane.