Contrary to what you may have heard, the FAA does not want to ban passengers from wearing high heels on planes. This is yet another shoe myth that refuses to die.
You might have to remove your shoes for the airport’s security scanner, but that’s where the shoe police start and end with air travel.
The FAA’s current recommendation (last updated in August 2022) is that passengers “Wear low-heeled, leather, or canvas shoes”.
Quite what “low-heeled” shoes are is a matter of interpretation. But they are certainly they are not “no heeled” anyway.
As even flight attendants wear low-heeled shoes on board (although many change to flats for service), it is hardly likely that heels will ever be banned altogether.
Its also important to read the FAA’s recommendation in context. The recommendation is one of a number of clothing tips under the heading “wear sensible clothing”.
Of course “sensible” is very judgey-judgey, so what do the FAA mean by this?
They mean clothing that will “reduce their chances of serious injury” if a passenger is caught in a plane crash.
Yes, the FAA actually suggest that you should think about what you wear on an airplane based on the unlikely event of an emergency. Hence they even recommend against wearing synthetic materials when flying as these “may melt when heated”.
Dressing for the fire when the plane crashes is hardly a recipe for a relaxing flight. But it is also a pretty crazy recommendation.
Your chances of being struck by lightning are multiple times higher than those of being in a commercial airplane crash. Yet nobody would make sure they were not wearing synthetic clothing when it rained just in case they were close to a lightning strike and their clothes melted when heated.
And the same with heels.
You might be asked to take them off in the event of an emergency, but even the highly conservative FAA isn’t trying to ban your heels from flights completely.