College assignment help Laker information.

Cheers for that.

Yes i did think about doing Zoom but its my airline is UK based so i thought i would keep it with in the UK.

Well I think times have moved on a bit since Laker, and in truth the use of regional airports and liberalisation of certain markets makes your business model a bit different, and more like Zoom, or Flyglobespan. If you want to justify using a non-UK model then just highlight that most of the world’s successful Low Cost Carriers are based upon Southwest of America, including EZY and RYR originally.

Loftleider. To think you used to be able to fly across the Atlantic (via Luxembourg) at low prices on a CL-44…..

People Express

Cheers for that.

Yes i did think about doing Zoom but its my airline is UK based so i thought i would keep it with in the UK.

BA and BCal lowered many fares to stop Laker from grabbing their market share, Laker operated at a loss, and there is only so long you can do that for. Have you also looked at Zoom as a current business model? Also consider Flyglobespan, although they’re fairly new to the game.

From Wikipedia (i.e. type laker airways into google!)..

Skytrain
In 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. This was more than 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.

Although the ATLB granted Laker a licence for a daily London-New York “Skytrain” service the same year itself, it specified Stansted rather than Gatwick as the service’s UK departure/arrival point.

The then newly formed CAA confirmed Laker’s licence at its inauguration in 1972.

However, under intense pressure from the established airlines, including Laker’s archrival and next-door Gatwick neighbour British Caledonian (BCal), against a backdrop of huge losses and overcapacity on the North Atlantic in the aftermath of the global energy crisis caused by OPEC’s oil embargo, the UK’s Labour Government of that era decided to revoke Laker’s licence in 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 – 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”) 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 1978 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.

[edit] Laker Airways’ collapse and the end of Skytrain
In 1982 the company went bust, owing over a quarter of a billion pounds. The airline made its last flight on February 6, 1982, the day after the airline 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 practises 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 competitve 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.

Sir Freddie had a lot of enemies within the big airlines like BA.
They and others were out to stop him at all costs.
On both sides of the Atlantic.
But also, the expected freedom of the skies policy never went through as expected and from memory Laker had ordered a lot of A300`s for mass cheap travel in Europe. Plus, there were big problems with the DC10 and many fleets were grounded.
He was a real pioneer in every sense of the word.
Maybe others can tell you a lot more.
There could even be some ex employees around.