Laker Airways465 photographs
Laker Airways Passengers
Laker Airways Skytrain made history by bringing affordable transatlantic air travel to ordinary people for the first time. Before Skytrain, a return flight from London to New York cost the equivalent of several weeks' wages for most British workers. Sir Freddie's no-frills service changed everything, with one-way fares starting at just 59 pounds.
These photographs capture the passengers who made Skytrain such a success — families, students, holiday-makers, and business travellers who could finally afford to cross the Atlantic. The images of passengers queuing overnight at Gatwick Airport became iconic symbols of the democratization of air travel.