I can't see the problem. True, the risk is many times that of travelling by rail or scheduled airline but presumably that's been made plain to people using the service. The actual cost of running a Mooney from Elstree to Newcastle must be far in excess of what was actually paid - I shouldn't think £67 even covered the fuel. I see the pilot was going that way anyway and thought it was a great way of introducing someone to the joys of flying.
If you regard it as a cheap Trial Lesson, it seems to put it into perspective.