I’ve long wanted to revive the death penalty for whoever designs airline seats. Being fairly tall, whenever the seat in front comes flying back, the metal fitting hits my kneecap dead-centre. If the person in front doesn’t have the decency to at least control their rate of recline they receive a hearty thump to their headrest as I extract what remains of my legs from the back of their seat.

Even so, I’d prefer not to have to pre-reclined seats myself as I sleep better with my head down on my chin. That said these seats do look rather roomy in the leg room area and hats off to Spirit – more airlines should realise that the human race is actually growing rather than shrinking.

I’m a big fan of the Ryanair approach for short-haul – upright, rigid seats made of wipe-clean materials for fast turnarounds (and healthier knees).