Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-02-11 08:55:10 - Graham Ellis
A tribute - and a thank you - to Freddie Laker who passed away on Thursday at the age of 83.
After the headline-grabbing, innovative-ahead-of-its-time, operation of Sky Train that failed because it was also vested-interest-annoying, Sir Freddie set up another much less know operation based in Freeport in the Bahamas, simply known as "Laker". From 1996 to 1998, he ran a daily flight with a Tristar airbus from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to London's Gatwick.
When Lisa lives in Florida and I was in the UK, we often used Sir Freddie's service back and forth. It was cheap, it was cheerful and (alas, poor Sir Freddie) it was rarely booked up too far ahead. The plane was quite an old one, and would get held back in Florida to ensure that fog at Gatwick had lifted before it arrived there as it needed good visuals.
I recall one day being boarded, and then being unboarded as we had to wait an hour or two. And I recall that Sir Freddie, who happened to be on hand in his Laker offices based nearby, came down personally to apologise to the passenger, to shake their hands, and to wish them a good, if somewhat delayed flight. A great pioneer who I remember fondly, and who will be sadly missed.