People around Liz Truss's age

[mintywinter]

Who also went to a Comprehensive school, did you travel on a plane as a kid? I didn't and I was thinking about the bit in her speech where she says she got an air hostess badge, and thinking that anyone in my school who'd been on a plane would have been thought of as posh? In my school people holidayed in the UK if at all.

@maddiemookins16mum

Monarch and Air 2000 were also huge.

Oooopps....Very true.

.Omitting those two is an embarrassing error on my part given I knew people who worked for both...😳

The person you're quoting stated that was for Britannia Airways ALONE:

"I think saw that in one typical year in the 70's or 80's Britannia Airways alone carried 5.5 million passengers between the UK and parts of Europe various."

For the UK as a whole, the numbers would be much, much higher than this. For ONE airline, 5.5m passengers is a lot.

Thats why if you read on I doubled the figure. And said that's maybe 20% of the population.

I'll also add that their might have been a higher percentage of the population travelled to the med for holidays from the south as flights are much cheaper than flying from the North of the UK.

I'm one year older than Liz and grew up in a pretty deprived working class council estate.

We went abroad on holiday from age of 11. As did some but definitely not all of my school mates.

It was to places like Alcudia Majorca etc.

I flew on Brittania and Monarch, Trans Air Portugal, Cosmos (or was that a travel agent?) and possibly others.

How many passengers did TUI carry in 2019? They are probably still one of the biggest charter airlines.

Between 1968 and 1984, Britannia Airways carried 42 million passengers which works out at approximately 2.6 million passengers a year.

British Airways was probably doing at least double that between 1974 and 1989. It was the first airline to generate more than $1billion on a single air route, after all.

I'm 44.went to a comp in a good area.

Didn't go abroad until 10. Didn't fly until 14.

This wasn't that uncommon. Some kids were going abroad by plane on holiday but I can't say it was common until I was hitting about 16/17.

Then the age of easyjet started. In 1995.

It wasn't common before Easyjet.

Am I the only one who has just checked her age and been shocked. She’s 2 years younger than me!!! I thought she was at least 10 years old

It's hard to find the numbers, but I'd suggest at a minimum at least a quarter of the UK population had flown during the 1970s. Likely approaching half the population in the 1980s.

The 1980s especially was an interesting time for aviation - prices were cheaper and planes were bigger than in the 1970s.

In 1996, easyjet and British Airways Go had a combined passenger number of 4.6 million. By 2005, they had 77.5 million on total.

So, about 25% to perhaps 30% would be a decent estimate for the proportion of the UK population having flown regularly. It'd be a bit higher if we count those having flown at least twice in one trip.

I'm ten years older than her, went to a comprehensive and went on a plane for foreign holidays. My family was comfortable but not rich. However, my parents had been bitten with the travel bug in the late 50s when they went to Mallorca for the first time, and foreign travel was very unusual then.

She'd be the oldest looking 10 year old ever! 🤣🙈

I'll also add that their might have been a higher percentage of the population travelled to the med for holidays from the south as flights are much cheaper than flying from the North of the UK.

I'd be interested to see the data from the era to support that claim...

In any event a bit of explanation of the olden days - (and I'm open to correction...) back in the 60s'/70s AFAIK you couldn't just buy a ticket for the flight only on a charter airline. That was forbidden because it threatened the business of the likes of BEA, Air France, Iberia, who did sell seat only. So the likes of Britannia, Monarch, etc carried people who had bought package deals.

As I recall it the rules changed to allow some charter airlines to sell some seats on a standalone basis in maybe the late 70s/early 80s (I certainly flew "seat only" in 1982)....it all became deregulated a few years later at which point the likes of Easyjet, Ryanair and the internet entered the scene and marketing and sale of tickets, plus pricing, changed pretty much forever.

Do you think she meant 'Hostess badge' (cooking etc) ? I don't think there was an air hostess badge! Well not in my brownies and can't find when googling .

Both of my parent are older than Liz Truss and they went on holiday most years as children. Skiing in the winter and Eurooe in the summer.
Plenty of middle class children go to state schools!

I'm her age and the first time I went on a plane was when I was about 15 on a school trip. Going on a plane to go on holiday was not usual and was seen as very extravagant. We went on a coach trip to Spain once.

I agree that for many working class families in 70s/80s, air travel was not a thing yet. Comprehensive schools weren't just for working class though.

I worked for Monarch/Cosmos for 26 years.

Ignore my post - don't know where I got the idea it was a brownie badge being talked about! Just listened to her speech. Sorry! 😩

She's considerably younger than me, and back in my day yes people were going on foreign holidays.

Not everyone and not every year (I went only one with my parents, plus two school trips, plus a French exchange but some of those were ferry/coach rather than flying) but it really wasn't unusual to go to Spain or Majorca

(anyone else remember the 'water in Majorca don't taste like what it oughter' advert?)

Remember the Brownie 'hostess' badge, but not Air Hostess, and suspect there's a misremembering/garble on that.

I agree that for many working class families in 70s/80s, air travel was not a thing yet.

And for many working class families it was.

I'm 51, in my school there were only a couple of people who ever went abroad, it was quite unusual. I guess wealthier locations might have been different. I didn't get on a plane until I was 16.

I'm a year older than her and flew on a domestic flight about the age of 6. It was a little bit contrived though though, I think my parents wanted to give us an experience and the opportunity arose through their work. It was another 8-10 years before we flew again.

I went to a state grammar school which was run of the mill apart from being academically selective because all the schools in the county were in a selective system and people didn't need to move into expensive houses nearby to be near enough to get a place in an oversubscribed system in those days. I hadn't been on a plane during my school days and neither had quite a few other pupils although quite a few had too.

I'm a year older than LT and was bullied a bit over a (term-time!) family holiday to North Africa. First time I'd been on a plane, at 15.

went to a suburban state primary in a middling area- ie not many people on benefits but most people’s parents had jobs like car salesman or secretary. I am same age as Liz Truss. We were probably one of the wealthier families but private school wouldn’t have been affordable at that time- we went skiing most years on a plane. A lot of kids in my class went to Spain, Corfu, Malta etc. I definitely wasn’t exceptional. There were a lot of kids who didn’t though. I think both experiences are within normal boundaries.