Love flying but hate the hassle

BRITISH Airways has produced an app which can alert passengers about the time they need to get to the gates, factoring in individual walking pace. It will, claims the company, take the friction out of travelling. No it won’t.

I hate airports as much as I love flying. Friction is caused by the huge queues at checkin, at security and at passport control and the only way to remove it is to get there far too early. Then come long hikes to the gates in big airports. It is easy to find out how long it takes to get there but often gate numbers are not indicated till the last minute and it will augment not decrease anxiety to be bleeped about how far off you are.

Then there is the hassle of arriving at the departure gate with hand luggage, which officials suddenly want to consign to the hold, and there is always the nagging doubt that your hold luggage may have taken an independent route.

No mere app can sort any of that. Air travel, like old age, is not for the faint of heart except when actually airborne.