Flygskam

Shame on you?

Photo by Richard Cartmell on Unsplash

My first foreign holiday was to Salou on the Costa Dorada in Spain. I was 9 years old, least that’s my best guess when I look at the black and white photograph descending the steps of our plane onto the hot tarmac of Barcelona airport. It felt like a hair dryer had been switched on and I wondered why I was wearing collar, tie and mustard coloured zip-up jacket? The cloudy weather at Speke Airport (John Lennon) had been more comfortable and dressing up for flying was expected in the late 1960s?

It was 11 years before I flew again. A university field trip to Southern Spain. In the intervening teenage years, my parents turned their back on package holidays investing in a caravan and my education instead.

Family holidays were adventures to Wales, praying for good weather as we watched the cloud cover ebb and mostly flow over breakfast. Scotland was later, where guaranteed grey backdrops were temporarily forgotten as we soaked up the wilder country the Highlands offered.

Budget bonanza

The budget flight revolution which has made Europe and long haul destinations so much more accessible to many, started in Texas with Southwest Airlines in 1971. Monopoly pricing at Heathrow was first challenged by Freddie Laker with Skytrain in the 1970s…