There were no celebratory spray of water to meet us at the airport - the fire trucks were asked to stay away, because the temperature was hovering around zero and the pilots didn't want the wings icing up when they had to turn around and fly back to the Middle East - but there was a gaggle of media waiting on the runway.
And, from my comfortable business-class seat on the warm A-320 where I had passed the time since leaving Doha watching a new-release movie, I was pleased to be covering the event from the inside rather than out on that windswept patch of tarmac where everyone seemed to be dressed in thier warmest winter coats.