To London for 4

Laker's Sky train opens a new low-fare era

A $236 a round trip, the flights are the cheapest to wing over the Atlantic since the days of student and youth-fare discounts in the early 1970s. Freddie Laker, the British aviation innovator, finally got his New York-London Skytrain shuttle off the ground last week, after 6% years of bucking the world's established airlines and his own government through marathon rounds of regulatory hearings and court battles. A classic free enterpriser, Laker is convinced that he can make a profit by bringing transoceanic travel within the reach of almost anyone: backpacking youths, retired folks, modestly paid workers--especially those who have rarely, if ever, flown before.

There is no assurance that he will.

Even on the first of the one-a-day flights in DC-10 jumbos, some seats were empty, and later some planes took off with only a third of the 345 seats filled. Yet at minimum, little Laker Airways (eleven jets) has broken the iron grip of the International Air Transport Association (I ATA) on transatlantic pricing* and prodded the industry's giants into offering competitive fares that are lower than they ever thought they would go. Pan Am and TWA actually beat Laker into the bargain-basement blue yonder by eleven days, selling stand-by seating on regular flights for $256 round trip.

All of which, plus the hardships of standing in line for the no-reservations Skytrain, lent an air of start-of-an-era pioneering adventure to Laker's inaugural takeoffs, as TIME Reporter-Researcher Sue Raffety discovered when she boarded the first New York-London Skytrain.

Her account:

Thirty-six and a half hours to... takeoff? Lindbergh made it to Paris in less time 50 years ago, when Freddie Laker was a toddler of four. What's more, Lindy did not have a toothache, as did I, and he was warmer and drier. My wait began at noon Sunday in London-style rain and drizzle outside the Laker Travel Center in Queens, New York, five miles from Kennedy Airport. Not until 12:38 a.m. Tuesday--1% hours behind schedule --did we lift off from Kennedy.

The long wait occurred because I had to be on that first London-bound Skytrain, and it attracted the kind of people who flock to never-to-be-repeated phenomena. Laker held firmly to the first-come, first-served rule: in London, awaiting the first flight to New York City, Freddie had to sign on as a "crew" member to avoid queuing up. I was 13th in line in New York. First was Nick Ratner, 18, who had hitchhiked and bused from California.

Freddie Laker, who had arrived from London Monday evening, kept us entertained after we were bused to the airport. Beer in hand, he jumped on a bar at the United Air Lines terminal (where Laker passengers departed) and bubbled, "We've got an important job to do--go flying." The crowd broke into For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. He shot off barbs at IATA. Said he: "The next time IATA starts to rip off customers, they will be very wary and say, 'Watch out. There may be another Freddie Laker.' " Finally, just before midnight Monday, I plopped into seat 21C. For it, I paid $143 --$135 fare, $3 tax, $2 for a hot breakfast and $3 for a cold dinner (no free food on the plane). Over 3,500 miles, that works out to 4-c- a mile--less than the tolls and gasoline expenses on the New York State Thruway (average: 5.2-c- a mile). The return flight costs $101.

I watched as other passengers filled all of the 345 seats. There were a lot of young people from everywhere--Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Brazil, Canada. For the most part, they were budget-minded but not poor. Said Bill Wedun, 26, the son of a Boulder, Colo., dentist: "I heard Freddie's trip was the cheapest way to get to London. The first half of your life you generally have more time than money, and the last half more money than time. I plan to spend both accordingly." A cockney with three sons declared, "All I want to do is get back to me England." Two California vegetarians brought wine, cheese, pita bread, sunflower seeds and pretzels. Many passengers were drawn by Freddie's feisty image. "Freddie is in a dogfight for the little man," said Pete Goodin, a biology student from Illinois on his way to Glasgow.

At long last, the plane rumbled down the runway, and Laker gave us the word from the cockpit: "Ladies and gentlemen, your Skytrain is in the air." The food arrived in about an hour, served by stew- ardesses in red uniforms who maneuvered in the narrow aisles between the ten-across seats: cold but moist fried chicken, a questionable salad, a soggy roll and a decent piece of chocolate cake. I ignored the movie Swashbuckler, tried unsuccessfully to sleep (my seat back would not stay put), did not eat breakfast (the sausages looked inedible) and saw dawn break over the Atlantic. Soon Gatwick Airport was coming up at us, six hours after leaving New York. We landed; I grabbed a train for the 40-minute ride to Victoria Station and got there at 1 p.m.

--43% hours after getting in line. My tooth still ached. "Travel teaches toleration," said Disraeli. How right he was.

That was how it began; where will it all end? The lower fares, whether profitable or not, will remain in effect for a while--if for no other reason than that the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board has approved them for varied experimental periods. Indeed, bargain fares between New York and London are still proliferating. Last week President Carter overturned a decision of the CAB and in effect allowed British Airways and other airlines to begin immediately offering "Super APEX" fares ($290 round trip, reserved seats bought 45 days in advance).

With Skytrain in the air, transatlantic passengers have a choice of fares ranging all the way from Laker's $236 to $1,312 first class (see box). Gripes one British travel agent: "What we need each morning is a sort of situation-room briefing that would detail just what fares we can and can't sell that day."

Laker anticipated the difficulty of starting a low-fare service in the fall and seems prepared to ride out a lackluster winter. He insists that he can break even if only 189 of the 345 seats on each of his flights are filled. Laker, who started as a civilian pilot and made his first coup in 1948 supplying planes to the Berlin airlift, runs a strict, no-frills operation on the ground as well as in the air. Headquarters of the line--which up to now has mostly operated charter flights--are stuffed into four floors of a Gatwick hangar, and there are no elevators. The line has just four directors, including Laker, who have only to shout down the hall to one another to make decisions. Says Freddie, who is gambling with his own money (he owns 90% of Laker stock; his wife owns the rest): "There are two price structures. If you take the cost of airplanes, fuel and maintenance, mine is the same as everybody else's. It's where you go from there that the savings start."

So long as Laker stays in the low-fare game, the bigger lines have no choice but to come as close as they can to matching him. Says one Washington-based ticket agent: "We'll lose less money competing than we would if we didn't. Even though you might be a loser, you lose less." The big lines, in fact, may gain rather than lose. Laker hopes that the bargain fares will be, in the jargon of the industry, "generative" rather than "diversionary." That is, they will not merely switch passengers from high-fare to low-fare flights but tempt into the air people who would otherwise not fly at all. Wall Street analysts believe just that may happen.

In any case, now that New York-London fares are down, consumer pressure is building up on both sides of the Atlantic for bargain prices on other routes. The CAB has let it be known that it will approve almost any low-fare offer. Says one CAB official: "The doors are open"--and airlines are walking through. KLM, the Dutch airline, has just proposed a $332 round-trip fare from New York to Amsterdam to start late this month; Iceland's airline is seeking a Chicago-Luxembourg fare of $295 and a New York-Luxembourg price of $275. Surely Freddie Laker has started a movement that will spread and rise. -

* Inspiring the Duke of Edinburgh to compose this unrhythrnic doggerel: "Freddie Laker/ May be at peace with his Maker/ But he is persona non grata/ With IATA."

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