Vladimir Gavrilovich Raitz (23 May 1922 – 31 August 2010) was a Russian-born British businessman who co-founded the

Horizon Holiday Group Horizon Travel or the Horizon Holiday Group was a British package holiday company which was one of the first ventures in the package holiday market. Foundation The company was co-founded by Vladimir Raitz and Lenny Koven on 12 October 1949. The co ...

, which pioneered the first mass

package holiday A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the ho ...

s abroad. Born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, his family were White Russian

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s who left the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

when he was six, and variously passed through

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and

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

before finally settling in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He attended

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformist me ...

, London, and studied economics at

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. After graduating in 1942, he started work as a journalist, first for

British United Press British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and then for

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from 1943 to 1949.

Entrepreneur

On holiday in Calvi on

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

in 1949, he was asked by a socialite with local connections, Nicholas Steinheid, to encourage British visitors the following year. Having calculated he could charter an aircraft and provide an all-in two-week holiday in Corsica for less than £35, he set up Horizon Holidays on 12 October 1949, and initiated the package holiday industry. The name was chosen to reflect the ''blue horizon'' that passengers would see from a plane window. With inheritance money, he chartered aircraft and made the relevant local connections with the airport at Calvi. However, after considerable delay, it was only in March 1950 that the Ministry of Civil Aviation permitted the flights on the stipulation that they would only be for "students and teachers". A brief advertising campaign in teaching and nursing magazines offered the opportunity for a flight, sleep under canvas, sample local wines and eat a meal containing meat twice a day – this was especially attractive due to the continuing

austerity measures Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...

in post-war United Kingdom. The all-inclusive price was £32.10s.-, or roughly half the cost of the return flight to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, the closest airport served by BEA.

First flight

The first charter flight between

Gatwick airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

and

was on 20 May 1949. After arranging to pick up passengers from

King's Cross Station King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...

, eleven "teachers" (paying passengers) and 21 "friends" (guests who returned immediately) were taken by

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. After a refuelling stop in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, the passengers arrived at Calvi 6 hours later. The holidaymakers were taken to the camping grounds of ''Club Franco-Britannique''. Much of the canvas used in the camping were remainders from the

US navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

which constructed the airport in 1943.

Retirement

He left Horizon in 1972 after it was taken over by

Court Line Court Line was a 20th-century British tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and charter aviation. Its merchant shipping interests were based in London. Its shipyards were at Appledore in ...

(which had also previously taken over Clarksons) and became a travel consultant. Court Line went into liquidation in August 1974. He was inducted into the British Travel Industry Hall of Fame. His personal memoir, ''Flight to the Sun'', was published in 2001.

Personal life

Raitz had 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren.

References

*
Vladimir Raitz Obituary
in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', Sept 3, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Raitz, Vladimir 1922 births 2010 deaths People educated at Mill Hill School Alumni of the London School of Economics British businesspeople British people of Russian-Jewish descent Russian businesspeople in the United Kingdom Soviet emigrants to the United Kingdom