You receive your new passport just in time, despite weeks of Home Office delays. You arrive at the airport heroically early, so as not to tempt the wrath of the M25 or Piccadilly line. You queue from outside the terminal just to check in, somehow make it past security and onto the plane as you contemplate spending £4.99 on a mini tub of Pringles. You’ve made it. Until, that is, the pilot announces: your flight has been cancelled.
The airline industry was flattened by Covid-19, we know that. A sector that funnels hoards of people into a metal tube only to sit cheek by jowl for several hours before depositing them in a different jurisdiction was never likely to fare well in a pandemic.
