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Witness History: The First Budget Flights Across the Atlantic

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The First Budget Flights Across the Atlantic

26/06/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The First Budget Flights Across the Atlantic

How a small Icelandic company broke the mould in air travel in the 1950s.

In 1955 a small Icelandic airline slashed the cost of flying across the Atlantic. It was known as the 'Hippie Express.'

In 1955 a small Icelandic airline called Loftleioir Icelandic slashed the cost of flying across the Atlantic. For the first time thousands of young Americans were able to afford air travel to Europe on what became known as the 'Hippie Express.' Mike Lanchin speaks to Edda Helgason, whose father Sigurdur Helgason, launched the ambitious scheme, and to Hans Indridason, who ran the company's sales and marketing department at the time. 

Photo: An Icelandic Airlines advertisement from May 1973, in New York's Fifth Avenue (US National Archives)

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