Slight hijacking of a fascinating thread in the hope of finding some information on my Laker flights, since a few experts and crew seem to have responded upthread.
I flew with Laker in 1972, 1-11 G-AVBW to Corfu from Manchester 27th May, and then the return in the same aircraft on 10th June, a package tour. I have a photo of the wing over the Alps, the Alps were always a big deal on board in those days, as they emerged slowly from cloud.
The part of this trip that's a bit of a puzzle is the return. The Manchester records, which are excellent, has the flight GK304 coming in at 1814 against scheduled 1640 (fine, not actually a very long delay as it goes). But it is recorded as coming in via Brindisi. Why would we have hopped to Brindisi? Refuelling? Picking up passengers? It seems way too short to be a tech delay. Any ideas welcome, as well as any information on the outbound anyone might have in a log somewhere. I spent most of this flight on my back across three seats at the back - this was the period where everyone dressed up to travel, and because it was a travel day I decided to get ready early in the day, despite having basically a whole day on the beach. So I was dressed up in cardigan and tie, getting massively dehydrated, and ending up with a massive headache and being sick on the flight. My poor parents dealing with it basically, and I think the cabin crew were stellar.
Next flight was to Malta in 1977 on another 1-11, G-AVYZ from Manchester 11th August, return again on G-AVBW 25th July. Again any information about this would be fascinating. The return was supposed to be via Gatwick but arrived early and the sequence was reversed according to the tower logs, so Gatwick after Manchester.
And then finally a Skytrain return to Miami also from Manchester, G-BGXF, June 26th returning G-BGXH July 10th. I remember watching the Coalminer's Daughter on the outbound, and on the inbound the crew were messing about, with one of the flight attendants announcing herself as "Amanda Goodbody" at which about half the cabin laughed, and the other half tutted, always remember that.