Can flying ever be a nicer experience again?

You’re charged through the teeth for ‘luxuries’ like sitting with your own family or taking luggage on holiday.

You’re ushered through security like cattle, beginning your holiday with a grim reminder of how much people out there would love to kill you.

The airport and the airline are different companies and take delight in making that clear, so if there’s a huge security or EES queue for example, your flight can leave without you and the airline has no obligation to help you. This is a huge source of anxiety for me now.

I mean, can you imagine going to the pictures and the cinema door is locked, and the staff say ‘nothing to do with us, the film is on. Ask the building owner.’

Airports overall seem to regard passengers much as the joke goes that university lecturers regard students: an unnecessary annoyance.

Will it ever change again?