Public hygiene is one. Recently, flight attendant Beth Windsor listed going barefoot as one of her 10 biggest mistakes made by passengers in an interview for Insider. Floors and carpets are some of the dirtiest areas on a busy plane. Going sockless can leave you prone to foot infections.
That goes double for plane toilets. Turbulence and the cramped confines of the WCs can lead to all sorts of leaks on the cabin floor, says Windsor.
"It can cause a mess that you probably don't want to step into, especially not with bare feet."
Socks on a plane
In New Zealand we have a fairly laid back in respect to where and when we take our shoes and socks.
There are few places where Kiwis wouldn't go Barefoot. At the park, tramping, even at the shops - lack of shoes is no impediment. But this tolerance for bare toes doesn't translate abroad.
The national airline Air New Zealand asks travellers to keep their toes covered for "health and safety reasons." Although, this is difficult to enforce.
The airline's Wellbeing Guide says that it passengers often take shoes off to counter the side effects of to long-haul flights in pressurised cabins.
"It is not uncommon for passengers to remove their shoes to alleviate the potential discomfort of normal swelling during flight, it is however a requirement that passengers must wear safe, appropriate footwear for boarding and disembarking."
Podiatrist Ebonie Vincent was recently interviewed by the Washington Post on the topic. She advised travellers to keep their shoes on, at all costs.
"You could pick up fungus, not to mention the millions of germs and bacteria that you could transfer to carpets, inside hotel rooms or homes and cars."
That's what jandals were invented for.
