Everybody knows that waiting in an airport is dull, especially if your flight is delayed, but the trick is to follow the mantra of the boy scouts and ‘be prepared’.

Have your phone and iPad to hand, along with their respective chargers, so that fashion news and zippy communication is taken care of; then invest in newspapers and magazines carefully, choosing serious, educational titles you might not usually go for that will guarantee engrossed hours for the actual flight. Bring your own snacks or you’ll start eating coagulated and nondescript solids, and learn to love booze that comes in soft little plastic bottles. 

We know that yet another Tannoy announcement outlining the vague reasons for the fact that you’ve been sitting staring at an empty runway for three hours is frustrating, but these simple steps will help prevent restlessness that borders on insanity.

Or you could just make like the perpetually hyper Cara Delevingne and create gurning Vines that you share with 849,000 Twitter followers. Her little mini-documentaries are a study in airport exasperation, progressing from trips to Pret and Boots and shots of a sleepy departures lounge to the frantic activity of a woman who has been kept on tarmac for far too long.

Rest assured though, the world’s favourite model, who was flying in decidedly budget conditions, halted her Twitter activity two hours ago, so it’s safe to surmise she is currently reading the Financial Times in the sky…