Time was, an Australian travelling overseas would head for Qantas as the national carrier and a symbol of Australia, with the big kangaroo on the tail …

These days it’s more likely that the carrier will be picked for the low costs, the bigger seats, the better food, the baggage allowance and a host of different reasons.

I’m a Brit who has lived in Australia for most of his life, British Airways doesn’t fly to Australia anymore, I don’t want to go the long way to Europe via China or elsewhere, and Qantas does have A380s, those huge aircraft with comfortable seats. They code share with Emirates, and often the aircraft is supplied by Emirates, and you can get good prices as well.

So it was that on Saturday 15th June I checked into an afternoon flight on an Emirates 787 to Vienna, via Singapore and Dubai. I was going to Znojmo, an ancient town in Czechia, and the location of the 2019 International Cycling History Conference.