Tourist Class: The Precursor To Economy As We Know It Today

Commercial aviation started out with just a single class of service. According to KLM’s Frigo Ogier this changed drastically with the introduction of tourist class in the early 1950s, an innovative concept pioneered by Pan Am that preceded the modern economy class. The driving force behind this transformation was a desire to make air travel more accessible to a wider demographic, breaking the relative monopoly that the wealthy had on flying.