In 1986, Ryanair – now one of Europe's biggest airlines – bought a plane and started flying from Dublin to London:
There were no computers. Staff spent their days retrieving files from two carousels, one to record forty-four names for each flight from Dublin to Luton and the other for flights from Luton to Dublin. Passengers had to call to the office to collect their ticket. Pat Carroll headed the London reservatsions office, which stored its files in boxes. When someone booked a flight, one of the staff would delve into the box and find the flight they wanted and write the name on one of the foty-four spaces, then search for the box with the return flights and do the same. At the end of each day the Dublin office rang through to London to exchange passenger names booked on each flight.
[from Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe ~Siobhan Creaton]
