Copyright Andy Kennaugh
DC10-30 G-BGXI at Manchester in the 1980s
Posted on 02/09/2006 4:41:04 PM PST by COEXERJ145
MIAMI (Reuters) - Business maverick Sir Freddie Laker, who built an airline empire on low-cost international travel only to see it collapse in ruins, has died in Miami, a family source said.
The source, a business partner of Laker's son who asked not to be identified by name, said the 83-year-old Laker died early on Thursday of undisclosed causes.
In the 1970s, Laker Airways' cut-price Skytrain service from Britain to the United States opened new vistas for millions of tourists who had previously regarded air travel as a preserve of the rich.
Skytrain, which opened in 1977 offering a one-way fare of $100 between London and New York, sparked a price war as major airlines rushed to follow its lead, many of them going into the red as a result.
In the five years before its eventual collapse, Laker Airways carried over three million passengers on its fleet of 20 aircraft and rose from 29th place to fifth place in the Atlantic air travel rankings.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.co.uk ...
Ping to you.
Well I flew Laker twice -- in '78 and '80. Cost $150 one way from NY to London. It was great. I brought my own food and beer and remember sitting there above the Atlantic wonder how I was doing this for $150. God bless Freddy for taking a kid on two trips he'll never forget.
I remember those commercials on KTLA (5) and KCAL (9)when I was a boy. I think they were like a cartoon.
Eccentric and visionary. The kind of man you don't see much any more.
people forget that it used to cost $800 to fly from LA to New York... on coach.
I remember him well. A true visionary.
Believe it or not but there was a time when only the very rich could afford to fly.
Conceptually, he paved the way for companies like Virgin airways and Southwest airlines. History is full of failures that taught valuable lessons to successors who made it. Without men like Laker, the successes may not have happened.
Does anyone have an informed clue as to why Laker Airways finally failed?
Agreed. Just the other day I booked a flight to DC on Jet Blue. My collegues bragged about their prices of just under $500 on the other airlines. JB was $200 RT from Oakland.
My understanding is that JB and Southwest are very profitable airlines. They just figured out the highly complex issues of cost and markets better and built on the Laker concept. They are still crushing the conventional airlines.
To provide low-cost air travel for the masses.
I'm sorry, which airline did you say YOU owned?
First airline flight I ever took, at age 21 in 1976, was Laker (charter) nonstop from Vancouver BC to London ($400 if I recall correctly). Good food, free booze, stellar view of the Greenland icecap with mountains sticking out of it. Thanks, Sir Freddy.
Laker lost his shirt on the transatlantic routes.
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