Sir Freddie Laker, the aviation pioneer who created Britain’s first low-cost airline, has died. He was 83 and had been suffering from heart problems.

Family and friends were said to be shocked and saddened by the death of the entrepreneur, who pioneered no-frills air travel in the face of determined opposition from the world's great airlines and government regulators, or "bums and gangsters" as he called them.

Although Laker Airways collapsed into bankruptcy five years after it began its "Skytrain" transatlantic flights in 1977, Laker's concept of radically cheaper tickets, austere cabins and passengers paying for their food opened the way for successors such as Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Ryanair.

He was a man of style, the underdog's millionaire, splayed across billboards which carried the slogan, "I'm Freddie, fly me." He became a friend and mentor to Richard Branson and was admired by Margaret Thatcher as a symbol of British competitive industry.

When his airline collapsed, Laker became as well known for taking his opponents to court with a new rallying call: "Sue the bastards!"

Laker was born in Kent in 1922. His father, a merchant seaman, deserted his wife and family when Laker was a boy. After attending Simon Langton School, in Canterbury, Laker's first job was as a floor sweeper at the Short Brothers aircraft factory in Rochester.

He served as a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary Team during the Second World War before going into business as a war-surplus aircraft dealer, making a fortune flying goods into Berlin during the airlift of 1948. Laker once said he bought his first Rolls Royce after selling hundreds of aircraft and engines to be melted down to make saucepans.

In the 1950s, Laker adapted aircraft to fly cars across the English Channel before joining British United Airways, the UK's main independent airline, where he became managing director.

His dream of owning his own airline came true in 1966, when he formed Laker Airways with second-hand aircraft from BOAC, the forerunner to British Airways. For the next five years, Laker fought the restrictive regulations governing air travel any way he knew how, even forcing passengers to form spurious "clubs" to qualify for cheaper charters.

But it was during the 1970s, and his six-year fight through the courts to open a no-frills transatlantic airline which passengers could board without reservations, that Laker achieved widespread fame, and in 1977 the Laker Skytrain flew for the first time from London to New York, with tickets for $100.

In the absence of airline meals, The New York Times advised passengers to take roast quail, The Times told travellers to find a fast-food restaurant in Rego Park, the out-of-the way neighbourhood in Queens where Laker Airways had its ticket office. Laker was knighted the following year.

Laker Airways, its tickets two thirds cheaper than the competition, made a profit until 1981, when PanAm, after secret negotiations with the other major airlines, decided to drastically cut its economy fares.

The ensuing price war finished Skytrain, which stopped flying overnight, on February 5, 1982, with debts of £250 million. Despite leaving 17,000 passengers stranded around the world, Laker remained popular on both sides of Atlantic, boasting free taxi rides in London and New York.

Laker always maintained that his airline was brought down by plotting from his competitors - British Airways, TWA, PanAm, British Caledonian, Lufthansa, Swiss Air and KLM - and his claims gained credence in the years after the bankruptcy.

A US Justice Department investigation bizarrely turned up a piece of school homework by the daughter of an aircraft engineer, which described the "nastygrams" about Laker sent by his rivals to stop him winning financing from manufacturers. In 1985, BA agreed to pay £6 million towards Laker's creditors and the airline's pension fund.

Laker disappeared from public view after the collapse, moving first to the Bahamas and then to Miami, Florida, where he re-formed Laker Airways in 1995 to make short haul flights to the Caribbean. The airline closed last year. Laker was married four times.

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