“That’s definitely there, for sure,” says Gloor, reflecting on his February flight from Hamburg to Hong Kong to deliver one of our newest aircraft, registration B-HPO. “On the flight deck, all the systems perform nicely, and you can feel that the aircraft is different. Everything is crisp, the displays are spotless and the seats are a bit firmer.”

The A321neo derives its next-generation performance and its name (“neo” stands for “new engine option”) from its LEAP-1A engines, which offer a 15 per cent fuel saving and an extended range of 930km compared with the existing ceo (“current engine option”) aircraft. All well and good, but on a flight this long there still has to be a fuel break – in this case in Dubai – after nearly seven hours of flying.

With fuel organised, the crew decanted for the night. Along with Gloor was a First Officer to share the flying, and an engineer, there to take readings to help construct a “performance factor” for the aircraft. Over time, the performance factor deviates from when it was new, which increases fuel requirements. “The engineer records all these parameters in flight so that they can work out where we’re starting with this particular aircraft,” explains Gloor.