Whatever became of these three ladies? Back in November 1977, Tricia Thomson, Chris Moore and Anne O'Donnell who worked on the information desk at Newcastle Airport were sporting their smart new uniforms. We hope the intervening 45 years has been good to them.
The 1970s saw the airport take off in a big way, paving the way for what it is today - a major hub, a starting point and destination point for worldwide travel. Kicking off the decade as the ninth busiest of Britain’s 39 airports with 416,000 yearly passengers, that figure had more than doubled 10 years later.
New terminal buildings and an extension of the runway to the east were proposed in the early '70s. And there was a new phenomenon - the foreign package holiday. Soon the likes of Thomson, Horizon, Global, Wings, Ellerman-Sunlight and Air Tours became highly visible around the airport as the sunshine business grew. By 1974, Thomson was carrying passengers to Spain, Majorca and other newfound exotic locations.
READ MORE: Back to school on Tyneside in the 1980s: 10 photographs from across the decade
Jet propulsion was a new arrival with last propeller-driven Dakota DC-3 flight from Newcastle taking off in July 1970 - and when a Boeing 737 arrived at the airport from Ibiza in 1971, 30,000 local people turned up just to see it. Meanwhile as international terrorism became more of a threat during the decade, so security was improved with the acquisition of new X-ray equipment and increased security fencing.
Famously in 1977, American President Jimmy Carter - with a legion of security men in tow - touched down in Newcastle before enjoying a momentous visit to the region. Months later Queen Elizabeth II and world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Al i would also travel through the airport within days of each other during high-profile visits to Tyneside. In the same year, as the industry continued to evolve, newspapers reported how young men were now just as in-demand for air steward jobs as the 'the ladies'.
The continued growth at Newcastle Airport meant that by 1980, one million passengers were passing though every year - and that figure would continue to rise. By 2019, the number had soared to 5.2 million. It was all a far cry from the airport's humble origins which saw it officially open in Woolsington in July 1935 when Newcastle Aero Club moved from Cramlington.
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