Flying to the Channel Islands - 1949

[PeteP]

When I'm not at the Tangmere museum, I work as a sound engineer/producer (and occasional presenter) at a local radio station. One of the programmes I engineer is "Yesterday's News" in which the Deputy Editor of Portsmouth's local paper "The News" looks at what was in the old "Portsmouth Evening News", as it was then called, 60 years ago.

I thought you might be interested in this advert that appeared in the Evening News in November 1949. Sorry about the poor quality but it's a scan of a photocopy of a 60 year-old newspaper!



The thing that caught my eye was the return price of £6.1.0 (£6.05 for our younger members). Now one of the things we do on the show is to update the prices to today's values using a piece of software we call "Pete's Price Predictor" which gives 2 comparisons - a straight increase based on inflation and, much more accurate, a comparison based on the average wages in 1949 and 2008 (the 2009 figures are not available yet).

£6.1.0 in 1949 is the equivalent to £160.07 in today's prices based on inflation but a whopping £480.57 based on a comparison of average wages! Now, how much you pay today depends on when you go and for how long but a quick visit to FlyBe's site revealed a 2-day return from Southampton to Jersey for just £44.20!

Some things seem to have got a lot cheaper in real terms over the last 60 years. Oh, and what a snappy slogan "BEA takes you there and brings you back" is.
Pete

PS just in case anyone is worried about use of copyright material, I have permission to post the scan on this site.
PP

[Garry Russell]

Cheers pete

Hard to imagine nowadays someone writing to their travel agent for tickets

Garry

[Nigel H-J]

Interesting comparisons regarding costs of yesterday to the present Pete, thanks fro posting that.

Regards
Nigel.

[DaveB]

I thought the 'writing to your travel agent' was a giggle too Nice to see some olde worlde BestEverAirline literature surfacing

ATB

DaveB

[Garry Russell]

If you wrote now Dave it wouldn't get there until after the flight left

Ah......it really was a different world then.

About that time Trans Canada Airlines sold their trans-Atlantic services with the slogan "It's only a day by TCA"

Garry

[Tako_Kichi]

About that time Trans Canada Airlines sold their trans-Atlantic services with the slogan "It's only a day by TCA"

It still takes a day too for us out in the boonies when you factor in time to travel to the UK airport, time to get checked in and on the flight, then the flight of course, then finding your luggage (if it's even in the same country!) and getting out of the airport and then if you are coming to visit me a 4 hour drive from Toronto to here (although you could get a Dash 8 connection from Toronto to Windsor which takes 1 hour and leaves you with a 30 minute car ride)!

Do I get a prize for the longest single sentence on CBFS for the above?

[Garry Russell]

They were refferring to the crossing comparing it to the alternate of several days by liner

BEA did one that toldyou how you could have breakfast in London and be skiing by late afternoon

Garry

[Fodda]

Yep £44 is a lot cheaper, but try doing it tomorrow in a Dragon Rapide or DC-3 for less than £500.

[Garry Russell]

In reality you don't pay £44 as it can cost £90 to put the bag on each was which used to be included in the price.

Garry