Laker's Jackpot

A lift for Atlantic traffic

Freddie Laker, the poor man's Pegasus, is walking on air. His Laker Airways' no-frills Skytrain, a bold gamble to lure passengers between New York and London with a pinchpenny round-trip fare of $245, is paying off like the Irish Sweepstakes. After seven months of operation, an ebullient Laker reported last week:

"We've carried 117,000 passengers, averaged a 78% load factor and grossed some $14 million"--$1.5 million of it in profit.

Last week the British government granted Laker permission to offer a similar daily flight between Los Angeles and London for $382 round trip, beginning Sept. 26. This week Laker is adding a Boeing 707 to the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 on the New York-London run and doubling daily flights to two. He has two more DC-10s on order and expects to sign up soon for yet another two.

His success, notably among the young (three-quarters of Skytrain passengers are under 34), has helped all transatlantic traffic. Competing carriers have followed Laker's lead and lured new passengers by offering New York-London stand-by fares of $256, v. the basic economy rate of $626. Braniff now has a Dallas-London flight for $398. Latest figures, comparing April results with those of the same month a year ago, show that Pan Am's transatlantic load factor was 62%, up from 54%; TWA's surged to 72%, up from 59%.

Laker expects to do much better than competing lines during the peak season.

On June 1, they will increase stand-by fares to $299. But fearless Freddie, unwilling to toy with success, will continue to offer round trips at $245.

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