It was announced today that Sir Freddie Laker died in Miami aged 83.
Sir Freddie was the one who changed the aviation industry in the 1970`s, with his cheap flights to the USA. His dream of running his own airline was born on the 1st April 1966 as a Charter Airline. Skytrain started flying in 1982 to the USA, with the concept of turn up and buy a cheap ticket. His fall was brought by the big Major Airlines, one of them being PAN AM, who dropped their Airfares to the USA by 66%, so this ended SkyTrain. Sir Freddie bounced back in November 1995 with Laker Airways.


RIP To the man who brought us Cheap Travel

Oh poor Sir Freddie :cry: We will miss him, i remember his Sky Train DC10's at Gatwick and then he got pushed away by BA which wasnt nice.

I didnt know he was 83, a good age and i hope he enjoyed his life, i think he did.

RIP Sir Freddie Laker, you have been a tremendous asset to the Aviation world, we will miss you but you will not be forgotten.

Yes he was quite an entrepreneur..the poineer of cheap travel.
Born in 1922 he was the son of a naval rating who deserted the boy and his mum when he was very young.
He was not a clever scholar at school and his first job was as a floor sweeper at Short Bros,Rochester.Kent.
His fist venture into business was as a war surplus aircraft dealer and his fortune was secured by the Berlin Airlifts in 1948 when all available craft hepled beat the soviet blockade.
After the airlifts ended he continued the war surplus work and in 1954 he began an air service and began flying cars and their passengers between Southend and Calais.
He began in 1966 as as a charter airline as he carried passengers for the fledgling holiday package industry but found the rules on package travel were aimed to keep fares high therefore he proposed an airline service that would act like a train where passengers would turn up without booking and buy a cheap flight
He took in the UK and the US authorities and the leading airlines in his bid to launch a service offering low-cost air fares.
After years spent winning appproval from goverments in September 1978 the First Skytrain took off from Los Angelos in a blaze of positive publicity.
Sir Richard Branson said that he helped to transform the aircraft industry.
He bounced back into the limelight in November 1995 when he announced the return of Laker Airways.
The new company was 49% owned by Sir Freddy and 51% by a Texan millionairre and offered a twice weekly service between London and Florida and then flights in the Caribbean.
The big airlines began secret meetings to plot the downfall of Sir Freddy Laker.
After he ran into debt problems and had been hit by the falling pound it was PanAm's decision to cut it's economy fares by 66% which finally killed Skytrain in February 1982.
A court later ruled that other airlines had used illegal price pressure and Laker was awarded compensation.
Sir Freddie,who was married four times, applauded the low cost operators that followed him in the 1970's.


Quite a man he was.. and i have a Corgi model with his Skytrain which i bought because i admired him very much..


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