What did people do on planes in the 80s?

In-flight entertainment was much simpler But in the 1980s, in-flight entertainment mostly meant reading your newspaper or book. “The movie went on after the meal service on one large screen and everyone would watch the same movie at the same time,” says Ms Hart.



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In USA, it is probably in late 1970s, when Southwest Airlines was born. Not only the poor ones, the rich would find hard-pressed if they ever had to “dress up” for the occassion when flying with peanut airlines.

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In the 1980s you could smoke cigarettes on flights, meals were included, and you could check as many bags as you wanted. Flying saw some fun arrangements in the '80s.

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According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the average domestic roundtrip base airfare in 1990 cost $288 or $554 in today's dollars.

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But falling fares in the 1970s allowed many more people to fly and undermined the exclusivity of jet travel. Sweeping cultural changes in the 1960s and 1970s reshaped the airline industry. More people began to fly, and air travel became less exclusive. Between 1955 and 1972, passenger numbers more than quadrupled.

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Back in 1975, things were simple. All fares were refundable and bundled with a plethora of services. According to a contemporary edition of the OAG North American Edition, the cheapest unrestricted one-way flight on American Airlines cost $138 including taxes.

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First-class stamp At the start of 1985, you could send a letter across the country, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service, for just 20 cents. (The price rose to 22 cents in February of that year.) A first-class stamp is 55 cents today — just a penny more than the price of one in 1985 after inflation.

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Average ticket prices have been steadily decreasing since 1980. In fact, tickets are close to their lowest prices ever. But from 1950 to 1980, flying was different. Before 1978, fares and routes in the US were closely regulated by the federal government, and many routes had fixed minimum prices.

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