British Airways is planning to launch a short-haul budget airline – I’ve seen this one before

Half a century ago, one of British Airways’ predecessors had exactly the same idea, writes Simon Calder

On 6 March 1970, the first commercial flight took off from Gatwick, destination Palma (PA)

Agile and competitive: no, not me, but British Airways’ planned budget subsidiary at Gatwick, which starts flying next March. Plus ça change...

Half a century ago, one of British Airways’ predecessors had exactly the same idea. BEA wanted to compete against low-cost competitors such as Laker Airways, but was hamstrung by generous employment agreements. So it created BEA Airtours – using older planes and working pilots and cabin crew harder, to be competitive.

On 6 March 1970, the first commercial flight took off from Gatwick, destination Palma. A few years later, almost certainly before you were born, I took my first job there – cleaning the offices and duty rooms.