Airports are gateways to countries, especially those serving capital cities. They can, do or should reflect at least some of the values and standards that a country likes to think is its public face to the rest of the world.

London's Heathrow, for example, is messy but it works, a reflection of the great British virtue of muddling through against all odds. Charles de Gaulle in Paris is quintessentially French: lots of style but infuriatingly difficult to negotiate. Moscow's Sheremetyevo had all the charms of Soviet bureaucracy, offset by vodka and Cuban cigars.