The Laker story will always be coloured by the myth that he was a good businessman. Obviously he was not! As well as buying a fleet of A300s for routes without licences
Actually ... For the UK to get in on the "building Airbus" project there needed to be a British customer of the Airbus product, namely the A300.
Maggie went to her state owned airline, they told her to bogger off so then she went to the 2nd flag carrier, BCal, they told her to bogger off so then she went to FAL to enquire if he would entertain ordering 10 of the Airbus product, FAL questioned of Maggie "Would you look favourably upon my 600 European Skytrain route applications?" to which Maggie replied "Of course I will darling" and the rest is history.
And as for Maggie having a word in the shell like of Ronald to stop the US Grand Jury case that would have closed down Maggie's "World's Favourite" airline, at the precise time when she was trying to privatise it, well she was at the forefront of closing Laker down.
R.I.P. Maggie
