Absent-minded Britons spend an astonishing £350 million a year at airports buying items they forgot to pack.

Travellers spend an average £36.46 on items such as holiday clothing, toiletries and sun tan lotion which already had at home but left behind when packing.

For a typical family of four, the pre-flight spending on forgotten items can add to up to nearly £150.

The amount spent re-buying forgotten holiday items by British travellers is equivalent to the gross domestic product of the Seychelles and enough to fly 50,000 people from London to New York and back first class.

According to research by finance giant Abbey, twice as many men as women 'double buy' forgotten items which they failed to pack because they were in a rush.

Toiletries like razors, deodorants and skin creams are the most commonly repurchased items by the nation's 9.6 million travellers.

Second was travel plugs, followed by sun tan lotion, medical items and sun glasses.

According to the research up to one in three British airport travellers had to repurchase a forgotten item in the departure lounge in the last year.

The most commonly repurchased item was toiletries (45 per cent) followed by travel plugs (34 per cent) and sun tan lotion (25 per cent). Medicine (25 per cent) and sunglasses (22 per cent) topped off the top five.

British men are clearly far more disorganised than their female counterparts, accounting for nearly twice as many incidents of double buying in airports last year - 6.1 million compared to 3.5 million.

Steve Shore, head of banking at Abbey, said: “It’s amazing the total amount wasted repurchasing items travellers already own.It seems a little more forward planning could save the nation a collective fortune."

People in Wales and the South West re-purchased the most items with 28 percent of them having to buy goods they already own.

Those in the Midlands have the best pre-holiday memories with only 16 percent of them having to repurchase something they had forgotten before jetting off.

Table one: Regional breakdown of highest proportion of airport double purchasing

1 Wales and South West 28 per cent

2 South East 23 per cent

3 North 20 per cent

4 Scotland 18 per cent

5 Midlands 16 per cent

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