Sir Frederick Alfred Laker (6 August 1922 – 9 February 2006), was a British airline entrepreneur, best known for founding Laker Airways in 1966, which went spectacularly bust in 1982. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the "no-frills" airline business model that has since proven to be very successful world-wide with companies such as easyJet, Jetblue, Ryanair, Southwest Airlines and Virgin Blue.
Laker Airways
Laker Airways was formed in 1966. This was Laker's third and most prominent airline venture. Laker Airways commenced commercial airline operations in March of that year with a fleet of two ex-BOAC Bristol Britannias. These were subsequently supplemented and eventually replaced with a brand-new fleet of BAC 1-11 jetliners as well as a pair of second-hand Boeing 707 jets.
Initially, Laker Airways was a charter airline. For many years it had been the most profitable as well as the best-run charter airline in Britain.
Laker Airways had pioneered many new, cost-saving as well as profit-enhancing, commercial concepts and operational techniques.
Laker Airways also became the first Independent British airline to operate widebodied equipment when it introduced its first two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 series aircraft into commercial airline service in November 1972, the first European operator to do so. These aircraft were the first UK-registered DC-10s.
In 1973 Laker Airways operated the world's first Advanced Booking Charter flight. By the mid-1970s it had become the undisputed, global ABC flight market leader.
Laker Airways scored another "industry first" when it introduced its first daily "Skytrain" low-fare scheduled service between London Gatwick and New York JFK International Airport on September 1, 1977.
[edit] Skytrain
On June 15, 1971 Laker Airways submitted an application to the UK's Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB), one of the forerunners of today's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to launch the world's first daily transatlantic, low-fare scheduled service between London and New York, charging a then incredibly low one-way fare of £32.50 in winter and £37.50 in summer. This was two-thirds less than what the major, established "flag" carriers were charging at the time. The proposed service was to be marketed using the "Skytrain" trademark and was to be initially operated with 158-seat, single-class Boeing 707-138Bs that were acquired second-hand. "Skytrain" was to be a "walk-on", "walk-off" operation that did not require any advance reservations. Instead seats were to be sold to the travelling public at each end of the route on a "first come, first served" basis only.
The ATLB rejected Laker's application the same year itself. Laker appealed against the ATLB's refusal to grant a licence for his proposed "Skytrain" service. The appeal was successful and the ATLB eventually granted Laker the requested licence in February 1972.
However, on March 30, 1972 the UK Government revoked Laker's licence and instructed him to re-apply to the CAA, which came into being on April 1, 1972.
Laker duly re-applied to the CAA for permission to operate eleven weekly "Skytrain" services each way between London Gatwick and New York JFK during the summer and seven weekly round-trips during the winter. [6] The summer schedule was to be operated with Laker's brand-new DC-10 widebodied jet aircraft to take advantage of increased demand he anticipated for his new low-fare service during the peak months from June to September as well as of the DC-10's low break-even load factor of only 52%. [6] The winter schedule was to be operated with 707 narrowbodies as specified in Laker's original application to the ATLB. [6]
The newly formed CAA approved Laker's application on October 5, 1972. However, it specified Stansted rather than Gatwick as the service's UK departure/arrival point. [6] (The unexpected change in the UK departure/arrival point for Laker's "Skytrain" service was intended not to undermine the planned launch of BCal's daily Gatwick-JFK full-service scheduled operation for which the CAA had already granted that airline a 15-year licence - along with another 15-year licence for a daily Gatwick-Los Angeles International Airport full-service scheduled operation - during the so-called "cannon ball" hearings earlier the same year.)
The UK Government designated Laker Airways as a scheduled transatlantic UK "flag" carrier on January 11, 1973. [6]
However, under intense pressure from the established airlines, including Laker's archrival and next-door Gatwick neighbour BCal, against a backdrop of huge losses and overcapacity on the North Atlantic in the aftermath of the global energy crisis caused by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' oil embargo, the UK's Labour Government of that era decided to revoke Laker's licence on July 29, 1975.
Freddie Laker took the Government to the UK High Court, which overturned the Government's decision to revoke the airline's licence for a "Skytrain" service between London and New York.
It took another two years until Laker gained final approval - including a reciprocal permit from the relevant US authorities, which was granted on June 13, 1977 by US President Jimmy Carter [6] - to commence "Skytrain".
(In the meantime, Peter Shore, the then Secretary of State for Trade, had conducted a review of the Government's aviation policy and in 1976 announced a new "spheres of influence" policy that ended "dual designation" for British airlines on all long-haul routes. As a result of this new aviation policy BA and BCal were no longer permitted to run competing scheduled services on the same long-haul routes and the latter was forced to withdraw from the London-New York and London-Los Angeles routes, leading to the revocation of BCal's Gatwick-JFK and Gatwick-L.A. licences. The same year, Edmund Dell, the then Secretary of State for Transport, renounced the original Bermuda air services agreement of 1946 and initiated bilateral negotiations with his US counterparts on a new air services agreement, which resulted in the Bermuda II treaty of 1977.)
Laker's long-running "Skytrain" application was finally granted in 1977 upon designating the airline as the second UK flag carrier between London and New York under the then just-concluded Bermuda II UK-US air agreement. At the last minute prior to the inaugural "Skytrain" flight from London to New York Laker also received Government permission to use its Gatwick base as the service's UK departure and arrival point, rather than Stansted as originally specified in its licence.
"Skytrain" took to the air for the first time on September 1, 1977 when the service's inaugural flight departed London Gatwick for New York JFK. The inaugural service was operated by one of the airline's 345-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 widebodied aircraft. The fares charged at the time were £59 one-way from London and $99 one-way from New York.
"Skytrain" became a financial success in its first year of operation itself leading to further expansion over the coming years, in terms of both new routes as well as additional frequencies.
As a result of his clever publicity stunts to market the then brand-new London-New York "Skytrain" service, Freddie Laker himself became popular with the public ("the forgotten man's hero" [7]) and was regarded as one of Margaret Thatcher's "golden boys" of industry (along with Sir Clive Sinclair and Sir Alan Sugar). The former Conservative Prime Minister was a self-confessed "Freddie Laker fan".
However, it was James Callaghan's "pro-union" Labour Government that awarded Laker his knighthood for services to the airline industry in 1978, rather than Margaret Thatcher's subsequent "pro-business" Conservative administration.
As "Skytrain" expanded, the airline placed orders for additional McDonnell Douglas DC-10 widebodies, including the company's first order for five longer range series 30 aircraft, which were delivered from December 1979 onwards to support its growing number of destinations and frequencies.
The airline also became one of the early buyers of the first Airbus airliner, the A300, ordering ten of these widebodies in 1979 and had plans to deploy the aircraft on a new network of intra-European "Skytrain" routes in a big way.
"Skytrain" came to an end when the airline went spectacularly bankrupt on February 5, 1982.
Laker Airways' collapse and the end of Skytrain
In 1982 the company went bankrupt, owing over a quarter of a billion pounds. The airline made its last flight on February 6, 1982, the day after it went bankrupt.
There were numerous reasons for what was termed the biggest corporate failure in Britain at the time:
Both Britain and the US were in recession and other airlines who were blaming Laker for the losses they had incurred as a result of being forced to compete with "Skytrain" desperately wanted it to fail.
BCal's senior management's intense displeasure at the Government's decision to revoke its own - at the time unused - Gatwick-JFK and Gatwick-L.A. licences in order to enable Laker to substitute BCal as the designated second UK flag carrier on both of these routes under Bermuda II's strict dual designation rules undermined BCal's future expansion plans and, therefore, made it more likely that BCal would join in or lead any campaign to put Laker out of business.
Laker's outspoken opposition to the anti-competitive practices to which IATA member airlines resorted at the time to stifle any serious attempt to compete with them made Laker many enemies in the IATA camp who wanted to be rid of the competitive threat Laker posed to them in the long term, including many airlines that actually did not compete directly with Laker's "Skytrain".
Laker Airways had expanded too quickly in the late 1970s/early 1980s when it took delivery of a large fleet of brand-new DC-10 and A300 widebodies, which had been bought with funds borrowed at too high a rate of interest.
The company was undercapitalised and did not enjoy the financial back-up of any significant assets, which seriously undermined its ability to withstand a concerted and prolonged campaign to put it out of business at the depth of the 1981/2 recession at the hands of its financially stronger competitors.
Laker Airways incurred a revenue loss estimated at $13m when the world-wide DC-10 fleet was grounded as a result of having its certificate of airworthiness temporarily withdrawn in the aftermath of the American Airlines DC-10 crash at Chicago O'Hare in May 1979.
Some passengers may also have perceived the DC-10 as unsafe as a result of a string of fatal accidents involving the aircraft within a short timespan during the late 1970s (including the 1979 AA Chicago crash).
The implications of Laker Airways' strategic decision to build its business on discount travellers only.
The fallout from the company's demise descended into litigation, which delayed the privatisation of British Airways.
Laker Airways Mark II
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 an endorsement from the music band The Police who had used the airline to tour America).
Laker, by now living in the Bahamas, got off the ground again in the early 1990s, moving his refounded business' base to Freeport. Laker Airways (Bahamas) flew from there until it shut down in 2005. It was Laker's fourth and final airline venture.
, se volete spendere poco ci sono sempre dei compromessi, la qualità costa. Che tanto poi con Ryanair non verrà a costare molto meno che col dumping di British o Lufthansa, a parte i fortunati che troveranno le combinazioni per andare a trovare Sarre e ATLMXP.
