Vladimir Raitz, co-founder of Horizon Holidays and creator of the air package holiday, has died aged 88.
Raitz was born in Russia, but left as a child as part of the mass Jewish emigration in the 1920s.
He had the idea for package holidays while in Corsica in 1949.
The first charter flight flew from Gatwick to Corsica in May 1950, taking six hours including a refuelling stop in Lyon, with the first package holidaymakers sleeping in tents.
Horizon organised the first package holiday to Palma in 1952 and the Costa Brava in 1954.
The business grew significantly over the next 20 years until it was sold to Clarksons Holidays in 1974.
We had the pleasure of working with Vladimir during our time at Air Malta.
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