I arrived at Halifax International Airport at 9:00 p.m. for an 11:00 p.m. flight. All the drive long from Charlottetown I was sure I would be terribly late.

I was the only person in the “line” at the checkout counter, the only person going through security (a wicket staffed by 6!) and the only person at the Maple Leaf Lounge counter. I was in and through and sitting here drinking tomato juice in 10 minutes. Obviously late-night Halifax departures are the way to go — much preferable to the barely controlled chaos of Trudeau Airport in Montreal, the other jumping off point for Islanders heading over the Atlantic.

Kudos to Air Canada, by the way, for the whole “web checkin” thing — it “just worked.”