The Story of Laker Airways
The SkyTrain
It all started in 1966 with a man and a dream.
Sir Freddie Laker, a British entrepreneur with a booming laugh and a no-nonsense attitude, looked to the skies and asked the question nobody else dared: “Why should flying only be for the rich?” At the time, the airline industry was a velvet-rope club luxurious, government-subsidized, and priced well beyond the reach of everyday people. But Freddie wasn’t interested in the champagne and silver cutlery of first class. He wanted to bring air travel to the masses—students, families, dreamers, and budget-conscious backpackers who deserved a chance to see the world.
With just a couple of aging aircraft he launched Laker Airways from Gatwick Airport. In its earliest days, the airline offered low-cost charter flights to sunny vacation spots across Europe. Brits who’d never flown before were suddenly tanning in Tenerife and sipping sangria in Spain. It was a start. But Freddie wasn’t building an airline just to ferry holiday-goers to the beach he was aiming for something far bigger In 1977 he launched the SkyTrain.
Skytrain was Laker’s pride no-reservations, no-frills, low-fare transatlantic flight from London to New York. The ticket? it costed just 59 euros one-way. No fancy meals, no seat assignments. You showed up, paid your fare, got in line, and flew. On the first day Skytrain launched, lines wrapped around Gatwick like it was Holiday season Students, newlyweds, pensioners—people who’d never dreamed of crossing the Atlantic were suddenly jetting off to America. For a brief, shimmering moment, flying was no longer a luxury; it was a right.
The industry recoiled. Big airlines like British Airways, Pan Am, and TWA didn’t take kindly to Laker’s disruption. They slashed their prices to match his, waged behind-the-scenes campaigns to sabotage his model, and quietly applied pressure on aircraft manufacturers. The global economy didn’t help either. Fuel prices went up. By the early 1980s, Laker Airways—laden with debt from rapid expansion—began to spiral downward. On February 5, 1982, it collapsed, stranding thousands of passengers and ending what had been one of the boldest challenges to the airline status But Freddie didn’t go down without a fight.
In the aftermath, he sued the major airlines for conspiracy, accusing them of intentionally driving his business into the ground. He won. Settlements totaling $85 million rolled in—a bittersweet victory, perhaps, but one that proved the giants had feared his success. In the 1990s, he tried one more time, launching Laker Airways (Bahamas). It flew from the Caribbean to the U.S., and briefly from the U.K. to Florida. It didn’t last. But the spirit was there.
Sir Freddie Laker passed away in 2006, but his legacy is all around us. Every time you book a budget flight, every time you skip the in-flight meal to save money, every time you hop on a one-way flight to another country you’re flying in his jet stream. Ryanair, Southwest, easyJet, and the entire low-cost airline industry owe something to the man who once sold flights across the Atlantic for the price of a decent dinner. Laker Airways wasn’t just an airline. It was revolution in the sky.
And if you ever find yourself boarding a plane, passport in one hand and coffee in the other, take a moment to look out the window as you take off. Somewhere out there, beyond the clouds, you might just hear it a voice from 30,000 feet saying, “Next stop: New York. Welcome aboard Skytrain.”
The End
