by The triumph of aviation is back – for some wealthy travelers, at least. This June, a Pan Am-branded commemorative flight will whisk 50 lucky souls between New York, Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London and Ireland in fine style, via private jet, and staying in world-class hotels.
Tickets for the 12-day trip were priced at around £45,500, and organizer Bartelings promised “a great social experience – just like during Pan Am”.
The US airline ruled the skies in the sixties and seventies, the era widely regarded as the heyday of aviation – but was the reality so rosy? We spoke to some of the most frequent flyers over the years to find out.
‘Minimum’ leg room and beds like luggage racks
Until the sixties, most commercial flights were in propeller planes – but the rise of jet aircraft made journeys infinitely smoother and faster. The airlines were excited about how the new aircraft could soar above turbulence, and advertised first-class cabins where people drank and dined comfortably, and socialized around chic cabin bars.
But for those in “tourist class”, or economy, the picture was very different, says Fred Finn, who was declared “The Most Traveled Person in the World” by The Guinness Book of Records in 1983, and who has soared 16 million miles in the sky since his first flight at the age of 13.
Now 84, he’s still traveling – with an aviation-themed autobiography Game Sonic Boom out this month. “With the rise of the jet age, the airlines could not resist the temptation to squeeze as many passengers as possible, to maximize profit,” he says.
Legroom was “small”, but flyers were often clever, says Finn: “In the quiet economy cabin I worked out how to take the gloves off and stuff them above, so I could lie down.”
It was more comfortable than first-class planes in some propeller planes: “On the Boeing Stratocruiser, your bed looked like a luggage rack – although at least they gave you breakfast in bed.”
‘Everyone would be scrambling for the vomit bags’
Smoking on planes wasn’t just common in the Sixties and Seventies – it was encouraged, says Hilary Thompson Dredge, who worked for BOAC as a check-in agent in 1973. “It was like brandy to calm the nerves,” she said laughing. . “But God, it was terrible, a constant miasma. Some rows were designated smoking ‘zones’, but it filled the cabin anyway.”
The acrid fug even made people sick: “Everyone would be scrambling for the vomit bags – it was so common back then. We all felt very disgusted.”
Flying was a big deal, travelers were often well-dressed (“You always wore your best suit,” says Finn) – but it wasn’t for long. “By the time you landed, your beautiful suit would be a wrinkled mess and you’d be smoking,” recalls Thompson Dredge.
Many US airlines began banning smoking in the eighties, but British Airways didn’t follow suit until 1998 – although, of course, many planes kept their hand-held ashtrays long after that.
Drinks (and donkeys) on board
Don’t think about one plane load of passengers in the early sixties, who suffered a flight with a group of drunken businessmen… who brought a donkey on board. He spent the trip wandering the cabin.
The pilot didn’t mind – he said the group was just “a bunch of good Joes”, wrote Kenneth Hudson and Julian Pettifer in a 1979 aviation memoir. Diamonds in the Sky. “They set the donkey loose in the cabin, and destroyed the furnishings. While the aircraft was landing, the donkey fell against the door leading to the cockpit, and was only prevented from entering by [the flight engineer]leg.”
Livestock on board was not common, but passengers were rowdy, says Thompson Dredge. “One would always feel bad in economy class,” she recalls. “People got very drunk down the ridge. We were given a quarter bottle of wine with our meal, but you could buy more – which many passengers did.”
A rough ride for the cabin crew
“In the seventies, the cabin crew were great,” says Finn. “Pan Am even trained them in silver service at London’s Savoy.” But the life of a flight attendant – or “air hostess”, in old tales – wasn’t always as easy as it sounds.
Only women could apply for the jobs, and they had to be single, aged between 21 and 27, with a “neatly proportioned figure” and “pleasant appearance”, according to the job adverts. They were only allowed to hold the role for 10 years, and there were several lies about being single to maintain their career after marriage.
Once in the air, harassment was common. In 1962, a flight engineer with US-based Trans World Airlines (TWA) – which ceased operations in 2001 – released photographs he took using hidden onboard cameras, showing the cabin crew sitting on the captain’s lap. “Many times I have heard a request, almost a demand, for a girl to get on his lap,” the engineer told the United States Congress. “Since the girls are under their leadership, this puts them in a very difficult position.”
The passengers were sometimes no better. In the seventies, BOAC sent out a new uniform for the crew flying between New York and the Caribbean: a “paper dress” with thigh surfing (it was actually a very light fabric), printed with bright flowers. But it was withdrawn from service within a year, because – it is legendary – that unruly passengers would put their cigarette lighter there to “test” its flameproofing.
Health and safety? Not likely
On 7 January 1972, the pilot of Iberia flight 602 was chatting about football with Ibiza air traffic control – so loudly, that he allegedly failed to notice the dangerous descent of the aircraft. According to the accounts, just minutes before the crash he radioed the airport saying, “Get me a beer, we’re here”. All 98 passengers and six crew were killed.
It was the start of commercial aviation’s deadliest year, with 72 incidents resulting in 2,373 deaths during 1972 – according to the Aviation Safety Network, which maintains a database of all aviation casualties.
The seventies were the deadliest decade in commercial aviation, with 16,766 aircraft-related deaths. 13,692 died in the sixties.
1977 was a year of narrow escape for Finland: “One day, I landed on wheels [when the aircraft crash-lands on its belly, rather than its landing gear] coming into New York. That evening, I caught a flight on to Copenhagen – spent ages circling JFK Airport. It turned out that there was a suspected bomb on board.”
Sky-high fees – but it was all worth it
Concorde, that great icon of speed and luxury, began commercial flights in 1976. Life on board was sweet: “Every time I flew, there was always a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon under my seat,” recalls Finn. But for most travelers it was firmly out of reach. A one-way ticket from London to Washington cost £431 when it started, which is the equivalent of £2,200 today.
However, just 20 years earlier, even the most modest transatlantic journey was even more expensive, with one-way tickets advertised at around £5,412 in today’s money. Fees gradually decreased, but were still too expensive for most people.
But for all the costs, discomforts and dangers, the sixties and seventies were the golden age of flight, Finn insists. “It was so exciting that you didn’t really care,” he laughs. “It was a good trip even, you know? We were all very happy to be a part of it.”
