Free as a bird

With a backpack almost the same size, if not larger than its carrier, the student or teenage traveller is unmistakeable.

Mostly sighted during the summer months when school is out, when the weather is kinder to the outdoor traveller and when, of course, the festival season is open, the young traveller is an interesting specimen most importantly because of their zest for life, exploring and experiencing the new.

The student traveller is often found travelling with a mate, or perhaps even in a herd.

While the solitary young traveller does exist, at this early age, it is more a rarity than a common feature at the airport.

Young travellers are generally discoverable even before they are sighted as giggles and laughter are often part of the pack.

The student traveller is, by nature, poor, and although may be found sampling perfume samples or fiddling with the latest tablet in the duty-free section, rarely purchases many items of great value.

Thus sightings are most common close to ground level, where sockets for mobile chargers are located, and where weary travellers can catch some sleep after that first festival where they saw Hot Chip for the first time, where they missed out on showering and sleep, and memories of which they will cherish forever.

Wings of love

Ah the lovebirds. The couple who are in love and have decided to get away from it all with a romantic weekend break in Tuscany.

He is wearing a pair of mustard trousers, rolled up at the hems, with a casual, pin-striped, pale blue shirt.

He also wears a pair of blue Toms and has a small canvas backpack strapped over his shoulder.

In his hands he holds a Panama hat, or perhaps a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera, but only as many items that leave one free hand for her, his love.

She is wearing a loose white dress with Broderie Anglaise trimmings and leather sandals. Her hair is long and left undone in what appears to be a carefree style, but which has been coiffed carefully as she threw it before her and ruffled it back into place in the ladies’ restroom half an hour earlier.

They hold hands and sip coffee, before jetting off to the Tuscan rolling hills, or was it a cosy B ’n’ B in Paris, or maybe it was an inn just off Las Ramblas in Barcelona?

Well, who cares? It doesn't really matter, does it?

Jet set

The face of the business traveller is not the easiest to catch a glimpse of.

This is because this executive beast always has his head down, absorbing or creating information.

Be it a laptop, a book, a tablet or a mobile phone, the business traveller is always busy and preoccupied with something far more important than the trivialities that comprise travelling.

Often dressed in a smart and probably expensive suit, the business traveller is sometimes the envy of other travellers because, while they are waiting, he or she is being productive.

This productivity often continues throughout the entire duration of the flight.

No time to eat for this traveller, perhaps a glass of water, or possibly a cup of coffee to keep output at a maximum.

With rules for technology use becoming more lax on planes nowadays, the business traveller need never stop.

Family flies

Amid a flurry of toys, blankets, baby bottles, books, sweet wrappers, more toys and half-eaten sandwiches, you may be able to discern a leg, a hatted head, a pair of eyes peeping out from a pram, and a flustered pair of adults.

Success, you’ve found the young family about to set off on their first trip together.

Often, one of the smaller species will emerge, wandering too far from the group, to be followed by a frantic parent.

Laughing, crying and moaning about desire for a chocolate chip muffin will frequently be heard, many times concurrently.

While this group of people may impinge on other travellers’ peace (but surely not be the sole cause of this disruption), its members cause far more tiredness and exasperation for the older members of the group.

But, at the end of the day, or the trip, the smile on the child’s face, or their look of glee at seeing a mountain for the first time, gives the parents the energy to plan the next trip, next year.

Is that it?

But wait, I hear you say. You’ve forgotten someone. What about the travel writer?

Well, you know what they say about people in glass houses (and pressurised air cabins)...