Laker Airways

When someone flies across Europe today for a few euros, a piece of Laker Airways is part of that. Freddie Laker’s airline from Gatwick was mostly a charter carrier – but it became famous for the Skytrain, the first cheap flight across the North Atlantic. This page explains how Laker came about, which aircraft the airline flew, why it collapsed in 1982 and how to assign old Laker photos correctly.

Laker Airways at a glance

Laker Airways was a historic British airline headquartered and based at London Gatwick Airport. Freddie Laker founded it in 1966, and flight operations began in July 1966. The airline earned its money mainly with charter flights for tour operators – partly for outside customers, partly for tour operators of the Laker group such as Arrowsmith Holidays of Liverpool and Laker Air Travel.

Laker owes its place in aviation history, though, to an idea that was radical at the time: scheduled flights across the Atlantic at a fraction of the usual prices, with no reservations, no free meal, no frills. After years of battles with authorities and governments, the Skytrain took off for the first time from Gatwick to New York on September 26, 1977.

About four and a half years later it was all over. On February 5, 1982, Laker Airways collapsed with debts of around £270 million – at the time the largest corporate bankruptcy in British history.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code GK: appeared in Laker Airways flight numbers, including the Skytrain.
• ICAO code LKR: the three-letter code for air traffic control flight plans.
• Callsign LAKER: this is how the crews identified on the radio.
• Registration G-: the fleet was registered in Great Britain. How the British system is built is explained in the guide to British G- registrations.

Be careful with old documents: IATA codes are reassigned after an airline ends. A flight number with GK on a ticket from the late 1970s belongs to Laker; on a ticket today it has nothing to do with it. Without a date, such a document is not unambiguous.

Who was Freddie Laker?

Frederick Alfred Laker, born on August 6, 1922 in Canterbury, was an established figure in British aviation even before his own airline. In the Second World War he served in the Air Transport Auxiliary, which ferried military aircraft. Afterward he traded in war-surplus aircraft and in 1947 founded the company Aviation Traders in Southend.

Aviation Traders converted retired bombers into freighters – in demand around the time of the Berlin Airlift of 1948/49, for example. Laker took over the company Air Charter, which flew supplies into the blockaded city, in 1951. Aviation Traders later also built the Carvair, a conversion of the Douglas DC-4 with a raised cockpit that carried cars across the English Channel. From 1960 to 1965 Laker was managing director of British United Airways – the airline that merged into British Caledonian in 1970.

With this experience he founded his own company in 1966. Laker was seen as a no-nonsense entrepreneur who liked to take on the big state airlines and the authorities in public. For his efforts on behalf of affordable air travel he was knighted in the late 1970s and was henceforth known as Sir Freddie. He died on February 9, 2006 in Florida.

The beginnings: charter with the Britannia and One-Eleven

The first aircraft were two Bristol Britannias, four-engine turboprops that had previously flown for BOAC. Laker initially deployed them on behalf of Air France, among others. From December 1967 the first jet arrived: the BAC One-Eleven in the 300 version. Five of them became the workhorse on short and medium-haul routes, mainly for package holidays to the Mediterranean.

Laker in Berlin

Especially exciting for German spotters: from August 1968 Laker based One-Elevens at Berlin Tegel Airport. In the divided city only airlines of the three Western Allies were allowed to fly – British charter airlines therefore handled a large share of Berlin’s vacation traffic. The group also included a German tour operator, Laker Holidays GmbH. You can read more about the airport’s role in this period in the history of Tegel Airport.

In 1969 two used Boeing 707s in the 707-138B version joined, originally owned by Qantas. With them Laker flew long-haul charters for the first time. In the same year there was an incident that ended well: a fire broke out aboard One-Eleven G-AVBX, and the crew brought the situation under control without injuries and received a royal commendation for it.

The DC-10: Laker’s widebody jet

In November 1972 Laker took delivery of two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s. That made the airline the first operator of the DC-10 outside North America. The DC-10-10 version was actually intended for domestic routes in the USA and had a shorter range than the later DC-10-30 – but it was enough for charter flights and for the Atlantic.

A third DC-10-10 followed in April 1974, a fourth in 1976. This fourth aircraft was a former prototype of manufacturer McDonnell Douglas. In early 1979 Laker ordered two more DC-10-10s and five long-range DC-10-30s. In 1981 eleven DC-10s flew for the airline – they were the face of Laker and above all of the Skytrain.

The Skytrain: cheap across the Atlantic

Six years of fighting for a license

Freddie Laker presented his idea on June 30, 1971 at the Savoy Hotel in London. The plan: a daily scheduled flight between London and New York with no reservations – whoever shows up on the day of departure buys a ticket and boards, much like on a train. Hence the name Skytrain. Laker applied at the time for fares of £32.50 in winter and £37.50 in summer each way.

What followed was years of struggle. The established airlines in the IATA fare cartel, the British authorities and the US Civil Aeronautics Board had to agree, and the approvals were repeatedly delayed, restricted or withdrawn. Laker went to court and in the end won the right to start. The new British-American air services agreement of 1977, known as Bermuda II, also played a part.

September 26, 1977: the first flight

On September 26, 1977, the first Skytrain took off with a DC-10 from Gatwick to New York JFK Airport. A ticket cost £59 each way from London and $135 in the opposite direction. That was a fraction of what the big scheduled airlines charged.

The concept was unusually simple by the standards of the time:

• No advance booking: at first, tickets were sold only on the day of departure, and queues at the sales points were part of the picture.
• Everything extra: meals on board cost extra – normal today, revolutionary then.
• One class: the widebody jets were seated densely and uniformly.
• Gatwick instead of Heathrow: Laker flew from its own base at Gatwick, not from the big hub at Heathrow.

The idea worked. In its first year the Skytrain made more than £2 million in profit.

More destinations, more aircraft

From 1978 the Skytrain also flew to Los Angeles. For that, Laker bought two used Boeing 707s in the 707-351B version from Cathay Pacific. Miami was added later and Tampa in 1981, and there were also Skytrain flights from Manchester and Prestwick in Scotland. In July 1979 the British aviation authority, the CAA, finally allowed the Skytrain to take bookings without the earlier restrictions, and from October 1980 there were also cheap “Super Economy” fares.

Not all plans worked out. Laker planned a “Globetrain” around the world, via Honolulu, Tokyo and Hong Kong among other places, but failed to obtain the necessary approvals. Laker also wanted to attack in Europe with cheap flights. The CAA eventually approved routes to Berlin Tegel and Zurich, among others, but the airline collapsed before those flights started.

The fleet at a glance

Over its entire history, these types flew for Laker Airways:

Type	Period at Laker	Use	Spotter tip
Bristol Britannia 102	from 1966	First charter flights	Four-engine turboprop, formerly BOAC
BAC One-Eleven 300	from 1967	Short and medium-haul, also from Berlin Tegel	Two rear-mounted engines, T-tail
Boeing 707-138B	from 1969	Long-haul charter	Short 707 version, formerly Qantas
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10	1972–1982	Charter and Skytrain	Third engine in the vertical stabilizer
Boeing 707-351B	from about 1978	Skytrain to the US West Coast	Stretched 707-320B, formerly Cathay Pacific
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30	from 1979/80	Long-haul	Additional main landing gear in the center of the fuselage
Airbus A300B4	from 1981	Charter in Europe	Twin-engine widebody jet, three aircraft

Laker ordered the Airbus A300B4 ten times over in September 1978, mainly for plans in Europe. In fact only three aircraft joined the fleet before the airline collapsed. At the end the fleet consisted of 20 aircraft, 14 of them widebodies.

How to recognize Laker Airways

Laker’s livery was in black, red and white. The colors came from Freddie Laker’s racing stable – he owned racehorses, and the jockey colors became the airline’s trademark.

These steps help you assign old photos:

A note on International Caribbean Airways: Laker held a stake in this airline from Barbados, which flew from the end of 1970. Its aircraft carried their own titles instead of the Laker titles. Photos of them are therefore not “genuine” Laker aircraft, even though they come from the same circle.

The collapse in 1982

Grew too fast

In the late 1970s Laker grew rapidly. The group employed around 2,000 people in 1981, and the fleet was expanded heavily with DC-10s and A300s. The aircraft were paid for with loans in US dollars. At the same time Laker had little equity as a buffer – far less than big competitors like British Airways.

There was already a blow in 1979: after the crash of an American Airlines DC-10 in Chicago, the US aviation authority FAA withdrew the type’s certification on June 6, 1979, and DC-10s were only allowed to fly in the USA again on July 13. For an airline whose long-haul flying rested almost entirely on the DC-10, that was bitter in peak season.

Price war and a weak pound

The decisive pressure came in 1981 and 1982:

• Weak pound: the pound lost heavily against the dollar. Laker’s dollar debts thus became ever more expensive.
• Price war: from October 1981, Pan Am cut the cheapest economy fares across the Atlantic by up to two thirds, and British Airways and TWA followed.
• Collapsing revenue: between October 1981 and February 1982, Laker’s load factors and cash inflows roughly halved.
• Failed rescue: talks with McDonnell Douglas and engine manufacturer General Electric about a rescue failed after other European DC-10 operators, including British Caledonian, raised objections.

In the early hours of February 5, 1982, Laker Airways was finished. The bankruptcy, with debts of around £270 million, was at the time the largest corporate bankruptcy in Britain.

The legal aftermath

Freddie Laker did not give up. He sued a number of big airlines, including British Airways, British Caledonian, Pan Am and TWA, over agreed predatory prices meant to push him out of the market. The airlines settled with him out of court, and British Airways paid an additional sum of its own. That allowed Laker to pay off his creditors.

Laker’s legacy

Laker Airways existed for only 16 years but changed aviation lastingly. Freddie Laker is considered one of the fathers of the cheap flight. Many principles that are taken for granted today at Ryanair, easyJet or Norwegian he tried out early on long-haul. How the model works today is explained in the article How low-cost carriers work, and the difference between charter and scheduled flights in the article Charter flights and scheduled flights.

The trail is especially clear at Virgin Atlantic: Richard Branson sought Freddie Laker’s advice when founding it, and Virgin later honored him with an aircraft named after him. The US airline People Express also picked up the idea in the early 1980s with cheap flights across the Atlantic to Gatwick.

The Laker name turned up several more times later: Laker Airways (Bahamas) flew from Freeport from 1992 and was dissolved in 2005. From 1996 a US company named Laker Airways Inc. also started with leased DC-10-30s, including from Fort Lauderdale to Gatwick, and ceased operations in 1998. Apart from the founder and the name, these companies had little in common with the original Laker Airways.

Laker today: a topic for the archive

You will never see Laker Airways in flight operations again. Old shots are all the more exciting: in the 1970s many spotters photographed at Gatwick, Manchester and Berlin Tegel, and Laker slides still turn up in estates and collections today. If you’re standing at Gatwick yourself, the Gatwick spotter guide has the right locations. The other British airlines of that era – such as Dan-Air, British Caledonian or Air Europe – are also worth a look in the archive.

The guide Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky helps with assignment. And if you want to see the DC-10 live once more: only very few examples are airborne at all, mostly in special roles rather than passenger service – check the current status before you plan a trip.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Laker for a pure low-cost airline – at its core Laker was a charter airline; the Skytrain was only part of the business.
• Assigning every Laker DC-10 to a Skytrain flight – the same jets also flew charters for tour operators.
• Confusing Laker Airways (Bahamas) with the original – the Bahamas airline flew from 1992 to 2005 and was a separate company.
• Taking International Caribbean Airways for Laker – Laker held a stake, but the aircraft carried their own titles.
• Taking GK for a current Laker code – the code belonged to Laker until 1982; current flight numbers with GK have nothing to do with it.
• Equating the DC-10-10 and DC-10-30 – the additional center landing gear gives away the long-range version.

Conclusion

Laker Airways was a Gatwick charter airline with a big idea. With the Skytrain from 1977, Freddie Laker proved that flights across the Atlantic for £59 can work – and laid a cornerstone for today’s low-cost flying business. Fast growth on credit, a weak pound and a hard price war by the big airlines brought Laker down in February 1982. For you as a spotter the airline lives on in photos: black, red and white, a DC-10 with Skytrain titles and a G- registration – that is how you place such pictures with confidence.