As the summer holiday season comes to an end, we thought we’d take a look back to the early days of commercial air travel. It was only in the late 50s that air travel began to open up to a mass market and, as the following clips from this UK airline promo show, the flying experience was about as far from Easyjet as you can get. With not a sniffer dog, snaking queue or tracksuit in sight, it’s Heathrow, but not as we know it:
Opening its doors to the public in 1948, the structure of London Airport (later to become Heathrow) served as a reminder of the war that had recently ended, visitors waiting for flights in ex-military tents and walking on wooden duckboards to board the plane. It was not until 1955 that the airport’s first permanent terminal, ‘The Europa Terminal’ finally opened. The terminal building offered magnificent wallpaper, very helpful staff and (slightly redundant but brilliantly futuristic) televised announcements:
With air travel now affordable, the world was opened up to British holidaymakers like never before. And what did the airlines suggest we do with this freedom? Head to the Costa del Sol, don some fantastically garish 50s beachwear and sip cocktails to your heart’s content, now this is our type of holiday:
