I figure that the lack of passengers accepting ‘chicken’ or ‘beef’ would be easy to explain on Egypt Air’s Cairo – Doha flight – its Ramadan so people will be fasting. Except that on the Qatar Air Doha Tehran leg of the journey everyone’s tucking into the tray in front of them. A colleague points out its OK to break the fast during Ramadan if you’re traveling.

How to explain the different behaviours? How about the vast gulf between the quality of the food on offer – cardboard vs cuisine. Kick myself for missing the obvious.