Memories of holiday-making in the 1960s
 

Dear forum members,

I am doing some research for a documentary about British holidays in the 1960s and would like to talk to anyone who worked in the industry during this time. It's meant to be a lively and intelligent look at how our holiday patterns changed during this decade and I'd like to find out what it was like to be on the other side of the holiday experience.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who would be interested in sharing their knowledge! And I would also really appreciate any links to other associations or groups who you think would be good to contact.

Feel free to contact on [email protected].

Thanks for your time and for this interesting site.

Holidays
 

Holidays! - What holidays? If we went anywhere it was to visit my grandparents in Cardiff. I loved staying with my granny and granddad but did not care much for the endless rounds of visiting relatives from both sides of the family. My father was in the RAF too and he maintained that when he was posted abroad - that was our holiday. (Egypt -1951/2, Singapore 1958/60 and Cyprus 1963/66 - I left home to join up in Jan 64).

I cannot remember any of my scaley brat school friends from the 50s and early 60s that went 'On holiday'.

Beach huts
 

We had beach hut holidays in Frinton-on-Sea in the 60's - great fun & cheap too - beats queing at the airport:ok: :D:D

We once had a week on the Isle of Man, when we stayed in a B&B in a Chippy run by "Aunty" Olga. Mostly, the menfolk sailed Grandad's homebuild cabin cruiser "Dandylion" to Whitby and Scarborough and each family had a week aboard in turn.

At the end of my RAF Apprenticeship in 1966, four of us newly graduated Junior Technicians went to Butlins, Filey for a week. It was rumoured that if you couldn't get your end away at Butlins, you'd be doomed to a life of celibacy. The rumours turned out to be correct and none of us ended up taking the cloth.

My parents couldn't afford to fly or go overseas for holidays in the '60s, but we didn't need to. The UK summer weather always seemed to be hot and sunny, global warming hadn't even started. Consequently we always came back suntanned from a week at Bournemouth, Torquay or Newquay.
Happy days!

Everyone seems to be recalling their non-aviation hols at home here.

Meanwhile, over at the airport, it was a decade of probably greater change than has been seen since. In 1960 there were a motley set of charter operators running dilapadated DC4s and Vikings with no real long term contracts, and aircraft hopping around picking up odd work wherever, which seemed to vary from week to week. Airlines, as well as tour operators, regularly went bust.

For those who couldn't even afford an air holiday to Spain, many operators used coaches from London, short-hop airlines from Southend or Ashford across the Channel, and then long overnight coach journeys down to Spain or Italy. Ostend-based coach operators doing such work got real notoriety in the UK press for poor driving standards and occasional major accidents.

By 1969 however, operations were showing distinct signs of current styles of operation. BAC One-Elevens had come along as the charter aircraft of choice, and most operations were now jets. The commercial arrangements were different and much more professional as well, and many were operated on season-long contracts based around an aircraft programme all week. To the key destinations of Spanish Costas, Majorca, Rimini in Italy, etc, a jet could schedule three daily rotations at weekends on sectors about 2.5 hours long, leaving the UK at about 0800, 1500, and 2300, which they did pretty much all together at times.

The key resorts were typically the closest areas of Spain. The Costa Brava was nearest (and cheapest), and Barcelona and Gerona were early key destinations. There was seemingly some advantage in earlier years in operating into Perpignan, just inside France and then on by bus across the border; Perpignan had a challenging approach with the navaids of the time and there were several major accidents approaching there. Most of the holidays offered were classic hotel, rather than villas, self-catering, or do-it-yourself, which all came later. The season was notably short, May to September, and airlines still suffered from having to make do for the other 7 months of the year on odd alternative work.

Ah yes. My own first flight. Summer 1966, Cambrian Airways Vickers Viscount 700 G-AMOO. Liverpool to Isle of Man. Return fare (child) £3:18:0. Still have the tickets somewhere ..... !

My family was involved in the travel industry so although young I had a ringside seat of the changes occuring. It was an exciting time. The liberalisation of airfares was the big driver. Up until then flying on holiday was out of reach of the normal family. Flying was in the hands of the state carriers who largely pooled revenues between themselves. Fares were set by Iata, inflexible and very expensive. The big carriers BEA, Iberia etc. fought a vigorous rearguard action to keep the status quo.

The first inclusive tour flights were to places that the national carriers had little interest in serving. Fares were sold stricly in conjunction with accomodation thus the term package holiday and the actual price was not shown on the paper ticket. There were some interesting destinations some of which like Corsica remain niche markets. The spanish costas and Majorca have grown from these early days to the huge industry we now know.

Companies like Autair, later becoming Court Line played an increasing role.
They were early adopters of vertical integration. The parent company owned the holiday company Clarkson, the airline Court Line and in some cases the
hotels. Sadly they went bust in a big way in 1974, still remembered on other
parts of this forum.

The big carriers like BEA introduced their own charter services but largely failed to make a big success. Companies like Britannia, owned by Thomson holidays the big player in the UK followed the trend and became extremely successful. A period of enormous growth started, with prices that completely
changed the holiday industry.

Peronally I remember flying to Palma on a turboprop in about 1963, visiting the cockpit and deciding that was the job for me.

Not quite. BEA started their BEA Airtours operations in the late 1960s with retired Comets they found nobody else wanted, and made a substantial business that worked through several generations of aircraft and various renamings until BA sold it off, as Caledonian, in 1995. Over in Germany Lufthansa owned similar operator Condor, who were the market leader for many years there. They had an advantage that in the winter season they readily chartered their spare capacity to their parent's scheduled operation.

It is true that Condor was generally more successful in what arguably was a slower market to develop over here in Germany. What is not in doubt is that although BEA found a use for unwanted aircraft, tristars and the 707 etc. they were not as successful or profitable in the long term as the dedicated holiday companies.

Remember the following years were a difficult time for the state carriers. BA as it became had a very shaky time and their charter business was by no means the star, neither matching industry growth nor profitability as I remember it. Personally I suspect that the big UK holiday companies, Thomson being the dominant player, were not overly keen to put too much business their way. The big airlines never developed the kind of vertical integration that was the key to growth for the market leaders.

Ultimately just about all the major scheduled carriers got out of charter. You can draw your own conclusions. Interestingly the biggest holiday player in Germany (air berlin) looks increasingly like it also intends to split its business into a scheduled carrier and a charter airline. There is nothing new under the sun.

BEA airtours (a is lower case)
 

We did make money, and were involved in many overseas wet lease & sub service contracts. How do I know, I was there prior to the 1st flight in March 1970.:ok:

I do not want to put anyone down and there were some excellent people there over the years like Eamonn Mullaney. But the BEA/BA charter airline seemed to hover around ten aircraft at a time when the industry was booming, probably because the package tour companies did not really trust the corporation's motives. Profit depends on your viewpoint. Concorde was profitable if you discount the cost of aircraft ownership. There is not much doubt that the 707-436s were transfered at bargain basement prices along with all the spares. Getting back to the original topic maybe you can tell the original poster what is was like Merlinxx. I am sure we would all be interested.

Not long term. Eventually they renewed their fleet with a big investment in brand new 737s.

Again not so. BA were one of the bigger players (although many customers didn't know it) by having Silver Wing Holidays (upmarket) and Enterprise (one of the largest mass market players).

Probably because that is what an oddball Rolls-engined 707 was worth at the time !

BA did invest in 737s in the early 80s and used some of them for charter, including the very unfortunate Manchester accident aircraft. But I think you will find their charter fleet hovered around ten throughout. Remember this was the time Air Europe launched and quickly got up to nearly thirty 737s and maybe twenty 757s.

I am happy to be reminded of Enterprise holidays who I remember as a good quality operator. They certainly wanted to compete. However they remained a secondary player squeezed by the market leader Thomson and the aggressive number two Intasun (sister company of Air Europe), followed by Airtours who filled the lower end of the market niche after Intasun's demise. Again I was personally involved at the time.

The British Airways board were obviously not keen on competing against themselves in the rapidly expanding seat only market, which was the direction Air Europe developed things. The charter airline was a relatively small part of BA's empire and eventually it was divested.

If you are really interested in the subject I can highly recommend Flying off course, the economics of international airlines by Professor Rigas Doganis, particularly chapter 6 the economics of passenger charters.

British Eagle flew charters out of Heathrow in the late sixties. I went on a Britannia from Heathrow to Palma on a package holiday in 1969.

I think you're probably out, maybe by just a year. Eagle went bankrupt in November 1968. They were indeed, however, the last operator to actually base a charter fleet (as opposed to doing charters in scheduled fleet spare time) from Heathrow. Tour operator Lunn-Poly (who Eagle had a shareholding in at the time) were a major client of these services.

You are right WHBM. It was sept 1968. I flew on a package holiday to Ibiza in 1969. A BUA 1-11 from Gatwick if I remember correctly. 18-30 club :}

Resurrecting this thread...there was a documentary in - I guess - early 1980s which followed the saga of a group of Air Europe passengers arriving in a Spanish resort. The tour reps dealt with missing false teeth..Mother and teenage daughter falling out about the morals of the disco. The male rep later opened a bistro/restaurant near Rye. Anybody recollect this or shall I call for the horlicks?

Where (and how) you went on holiday in the 1960s depended (as ever) on money and class.

For most working class families (in the 20th C usuage of the phrase!) then it was UK bucket-and-spade. They might stay with family near the coast (grandparents or uncles/aunts) and stay at B&B; holiday camp; caravan.

The caravan park was very popular as there were regular visitors at the same time each years and became like a village - and some still do to this day.

Transport for most working class families was train or coach, shared cars with other family and (still) the motocycle with sidecar combination, although that faded as the decade went on. Families starting to own their own car made a HUGE difference.

Travelling to the continent (as it was known then!) was very rare for all families, not just working class.

We used to dream of holidays. We use to get up in morning half an hour before we went to bed, walk 6 hours to 't mill wi' shoes tied round ahr necks to save shoe leather, work 18 hours a day at mill. That were 'oliday to uz.

Good one Tabelview. It is true that holidays did not exist for many, many families in the 1960s. For some, it was still the 'holiday' of hop picking.

hobsoe01, please check your private messages (see links at top of forum page)