Freddie Laker


Sir Frederick Alfred Laker (born 1922), better known as Sir Freddie Laker is
a legendary British airline owner. He was one of the first airline owners to
introduce the so called No-frills airline system, one which has proven to be
a very successful system worldwide.

Laker, originally from Kent, started working in aviation with the Short
brothers. He was a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary team during the
World War II years, from 1941 to 1946. In 1960, he joined British United
Airways, where he was manager for five years. It was while with British
United that Laker learned the ropes in the airline managing business. So, in
1966, he departed to form his own airline, Laker Airways, using second-hand
airliners from BOAC. The livery was a mixture of black and red, with a bold
LAKER logo on the tailplane.

Laker Airways were committed to offering air travel as economically as
possible, with passengers being required to buy tickets on the day of
travel, their meals being paid for separately. In 1973 the company submitted
an application to the British Air Transport Licensing Board to launch its
trans-Atlantic Skytrain service, at a price almost one-third that of the
major competition. The application was not granted until 1977, after much
legal wrangling (there were doubts as to Laker's economic viability, and
allegations of adverse pressure from a cartel involving the major airlines,
who had meanwhile lowered their prices to just above Laker's level).

Skytrain was extremely popular, and Laker was popular with the public, a
forerunner of Richard Branson and one of Margaret Thatcher's golden boys of
industry (along with Sir Clive Sinclair and Alan Sugar). In 1978 Laker was
knighted for services to the airline industry. His airline became one of the
first buyers of the new Airbus, and in 1981 had plans to expand into Europe.
Alas, in 1982, the company went bust, owing over £250 million. There were
numerous reasons for this - Britain and the world were in recession, the
other airlines were making a loss by competing with Laker, Laker Airways had
expanded too quickly in the late 1970s, buying a large fleet of DC-10s at
just the wrong time. The fallout descended into litigation and confusion.

Laker was undaunted and almost immediately attempted to re-launch the
airline on the back of a strong public following (a relief fund gathered
over a million pounds, helped by endorsement from The Police, who had used
Laker to tour America). It was not until the early 1990s that Laker, by now
living in the Bahamas, got off the ground again, moving his operations base
to Nassau, from where the airline still flies. For those of a certain age
Sir Freddie Laker remains the acceptable face of capitalism, a big man who
took on big business, burned brightly for a time, and failed gloriously, as
all heroes eventually must.

As a tribute to Laker Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways later named one of
its Boeing 747s The Spirit of Sir Freddie.