After its collapse, BA and Pan Am reached an out of court settlement with the creditors of Laker Airways in response to allegations of anti-competitive activity.Īnd take the advice he did. Sir Richard had good reason to listen to the words of Sir Freddie. When Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984 Sir Freddie Laker, the founder of Laker Airways and the Skytrain, offered some words of advice “If you are taking on British Airways and Pan Am and they have massive ad budgets, you have to use yourself to get free advertising”.

Many have been updated since first published. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade. This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. Virgin Atlantic British Airways & Virgin Atlantic Aircraft, London Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow) London Air Travel » British Airways » BA100 » BA100: 14.