British Caledonian
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| Founded | 1970 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1988 (taken over by British Airways) | ||||||
| Hubs | London Gatwick Airport | ||||||
| Subsidiaries | several, including Cal Air International (1985—1987, joint with Rank Organisation) | ||||||
| Fleet size | 26 jet aircraft as of 21 December 1987 | ||||||
| Destinations | 40+ as of 21 December 1987 (British Isles, Continental Europe, West Africa, Southern Africa, Middle East, Far East, North America South Africa) |
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| Company slogan |
Let's go British Caledonian. (1970s) We never forget you have a choice. (1980s) |
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| Parent company | Caledonian Airways Ltd (1970—1981), Caledonian Aviation Group PLC (1982—1985), British Caledonian Group plc (1986—1987) |
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| Headquarters | London Gatwick Airport (1970—1980) Caledonian House, Lowfield Heath, Crawley, West Sussex, UK (1981—1987) |
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| Key people | Sir Adam Thomson, John de la Haye, Sir Peter Masefield, Alastair Pugh, Capt. P.A. MacKenzie, David Coltman, Ian Ritchie, Trevor Boud, Leonard N. Bebchick, Frank A. Hope, Dennis H. Walter |
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British Caledonian (BCal) was a private, British independent airline, operating out of Gatwick Airport in south-east England during the 1970s and 1980s. It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlines and was described as the "Second Force" in the 1969 Edwards report. It was formed by the UK's second-largest, independent charter airline Caledonian Airways taking over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest British independent airline and the United Kingdom's leading independent scheduled carrier.
The BUA takeover enabled Caledonian to realise its long-held ambition to transform itself into a scheduled airline. The merged entity eventually became the UK's foremost independent, international scheduled airline.
A series of major financial setbacks during the mid-1980s combined with the airline's inability to grow sufficiently to reach a viable size put the airline at serious risk of collapse. BCal began looking for a merger partner to improve its competitive position. In December 1987, British Airways (BA) gained control of the airline. The Caledonian name and livery was then used to rebrand BA's Gatwick-based subsidiary British Airtours as Caledonian Airways.
The Edwards Committee was formed in 1967 to look at the future of British aviation. Its report (British Air Transport in the Seventies) published in May 1969 made a number of recommendations. One of them was that a "second force" airline should be formed from Britain's independent (not government-controlled) operators to expand the UK's airline capacity on short- and long-haul routes. This private airline would get preference to be the second licensed British operator on a given route. In exchange for routes from the state corporations the corporations were expected to gain presence on the second force's board. Two British independents were specifically mentioned - Caledonian and BUA. At the government's instigation Caledonian - a 10-year-old profitable charter operator - took over the older but financially troubled British United Airways. The resulting company was initially known as "Caledonian/BUA" before becoming "British Caledonian Airways".
During the 1970s, as the third major airline in the UK, British Caledonian took the role counterbalancing the near-monopoly of the corporations, which provided 90% of all UK scheduled air transport capacity at the beginning of the decade. This entailed expanding the inherited scheduled network to provide effective competition to established rivals on a number of key routes, as well as augmenting the acquired fleet with the latest generation narrow-, widebody airliners to maintain a competitive edge.
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