Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — From cocktails and champagne to caviar, life on planes was very different during the “golden age of travel”, the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, hard to forget due to its glamor and luxury.
This coincided with the dawn of the era of jet aircraft, which ushered in aircraft such as the de Havilland Comet, the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, which were used in the fifties of the last century for the first scheduled services across the Atlantic, before the appearance of the Queen of the Sky, the Boeing 747. , 1970.
So what was the flying experience like then?
Aviation historian Graham Simons says, “Air travel in that era was a special experience, luxurious, smooth and fast.”
Simons pointed out that airline staff wore high-end fashion, and the abundance of space between seats on the plane, which amounted to about 40 inches.
golden age
With passenger numbers a fraction of what they are today, and the cost to anyone but the wealthy, airlines weren’t worried about providing more seats, but rather more amenities.
Simmons added, “The airlines were marketing their cruises as luxury transportation, because in the early 1950s they were competing with cruise ships.”
Simmons pointed out that meals include six types of food, as well as gold-plated cutlery, in the first-class cabins.
“Some American airlines set up fashion shows in the aisle to help pass the time,” Simmons recalls. “At one point, there was talk of putting small pianos on board for entertainment.”
Famous fashion houses such as Christian Dior and Chanel were working with Air France and Olympic Airlines respectively to design cabin crew uniforms.
A flight attendant job was a dream job.
“The flight crews looked like rock stars as they headed toward the final gate in almost slow motion, carrying their luggage,” says Keith Lovegrove, designer and author of Airline: Elegance at 30,000 Feet.
“They were so elegant,” he adds.
Most of the passengers tried to follow the example of the cabin crew.
“It was like going to a cocktail party,” explains Lovegrove, who first experienced flying with his family in the 1960s as a child and often sat in first class because his father worked in the airline industry. Which seems inappropriate now, but was expected at the time.”
“This is the generation where you could smoke cigarettes on the plane and get free alcohol,” he recalls.
“There was an incredible feeling of freedom, despite the fact that you were stuck inside the airframe for a few hours,” he adds.
“excellent service”
Pan American International, the airline most associated with the golden age of travel, was the first operator of the Boeing 707 and 747, and pioneered the transoceanic routes at the time.
“My work with Pan Am was an adventure from my first day with them,” recalls Joanne Policastro, a former flight attendant who worked with Pan Am from 1968 until its dissolution in 1991. “There was no comparison between traveling on Pan Am and any other airline.” .
“The food was great, the service was excellent, we had swans-shaped ice cubes from which we served caviar to first-class passengers, Maxims of Paris,” she says. [مطعم فرنسي مشهور] Prepare food.”
Policastro recalled how passengers would come to the lounge in front of the first-class cabin to “sit and chat” after the main meal.
“A lot of times, we also sat down to talk to our passengers. Today, passengers don’t even care who’s on the plane, but back then, it was a very polite social experience,” Policastro adds.
luxury world
Susie Smith, a flight attendant who also worked for Pan American Airlines in 1967, describes the food service in the first class cabin as more like a restaurant.
“We started with the appetizers, which included beluga caviar and foie gras, then we had a cart with a big salad bowl that we mixed ourselves before serving,” she explains.
“There was always some kind of grill, like lamb chops or roast beef, that we cooked in the kitchen,” she says.
“In addition to that, we had at least five other appetizers, a cart dedicated to serving cheese and fruit, and another cart containing varieties of desserts.”
And conditions weren’t bad for an economy class passenger.
“Food arrives on the plane in aluminum pans, and we cook it all up,” Smith says. “The trays were big with glass cups.”
Unforgettable memories
Passengers did not have much carry-on baggage, as there were no overhead lockers on the plane, and the only baggage that could be stowed were coats and hats, Smith said.
However, conditions were not entirely ideal for the cabin crew. Allowing smoking on board suffocated the air inside the cabin, much to the chagrin of the flight attendants; Until it was decided to gradually ban smoking, starting in the eighties.
Many airlines had strict requirements for hiring flight attendants and flight attendants, who had to maintain a slim body or risk being fired from the job.
Safety was not as good as we see today. In the United States, for example, there were 5,196 accidents in total compared to 1,220 in 2019, and the death rate was 6.15 per 100,000 flight hours compared to a rate of 1.9, according to the Bureau of Statistics. Transport.
Kidnappings were also common, with over 50 kidnappings recorded in 1969 alone.
However, there is nostalgia for this period, and Pan American’s global lines are still remembered Proudly, it was the pinnacle of the air travel experience.