I was only 6 in June 1981 when my family flew on a Laker DC10 from LGW to Gerona and back on a charter flight.
Can’t remember much about the service but do vividly remember the outbound flight. My mum was prone to travel sickness as well as migraines which often were at the extreme end and appeared like stokes. The reason for mentioning this was that the story went that we left LGW runway almost vertically which triggered both of the above. She spent the whole 2 hours throwing up in what appeared to be a near death experience! the crew were great looking after her. She spent the first few days of the holiday in bed which was always attributed to our Laker Skytrain experience.
The DC10 was pretty empty hence why I think we must have gone up so steeply. The return was also on a DC10 so having had 40 years to think about it and read forums like this the flights must have been just to keep the planes busy unless a more suitable sized 1-11 wasn’t available on either day (although as a standard 14 day holiday at the time this may be unlikely ie it was planned to be a DC10).
We had a massive stash of Laker sick bags as a result which lived in a kitchen draw until about a week before the airline went bust and my mum wishing she’d kept them as collectors Items!