Airline passenger news and views

When I was at school, a few boys were well known to the caretaker. Peters was always hanging around the cricket nets; Dunkworth was always in the gym at locking up time; and I was caught smoking in the toilets. My invitation to the headmaster’s study followed. It just shows you do not have to be good to be invited.

By analogy, I see that Carl-Henric Svanberg, the semi-invisible Chairman of BP has beaten David Cameron to an invitation to the White House.

The question is how does he get there? A few years ago, Concorde would have been the transport of choice but I suppose now he just takes BA First Class. I somehow think that the corporate jet might be a PR faux pas.

The interesting bit comes when he reaches border control. I have massive respect for US Homeland Security but they can sometimes make life difficult for arriving passengers. Probably, “I have come to see your President” will not be the best answer to “Reason for visit?”

It would be interesting to have a fly-on-the-wall view of this conversation. Let us just hope that he has filled in his visa-waver form correctly.