My journey last year to the first Gibraltar Literary Festival was achieved in some style thanks to the airline that generously supplied the ticket, Monarch. Such was the comfort in which I travelled — with an extra legroom seat at the front of the plane — that I almost forgave the inconvenience of the departure point, Luton, where I was obliged to stay overnight owing to our take-off being at an ungodly hour in the morning. Now Monarch is making a new move to boost passenger comfort by banning reclining seats. Marketing director Tim Williamson said: “The non-reclining design gives our customers far more ‘living space’ than traditional seats, without the fear of the person in front impinging on their personal space.”

A passenger survey last year revealed that 91 per cent of passengers favoured non-reclining seats. Why, then, do airlines like British Airways continue to allow space invasion?

I had a typical experience of this on a BA flight from Athens to Heathrow last month. Our Boeing 767 was not heavily loaded, allowing Rosemarie and me to move from our seats on one side of the plane (and a bawling brat in the row in front of us) to spread ourselves over three seats in the centre.

The moment the seat belt lights went off, however, the guy in front of me reclined his seat as far as it would go into my lap.

My immediate thought was to return to the window seat I had left, but this had been occupied by another mover. So for the next three hours I had to put up with the irritating presence of the man in front, bouncing around to the rhythm of music being played on his iPhone.