British Caledonian in the 1980s

British Caledonian in the 1970s

Livery of British Caledonian on an Airbus A310-200
Founded	November 1970
Ceased operations	14 April 1988

There were many ups and downs for British Caledonian (BCal) during the 1980s.

BCal suffered a series of major setbacks as a result of several geopolitical events that occurred during that decade.

These events significantly weakened BCal operationally and financially. They were the main factors that contributed to the airline's demise during the second half of that decade.

BCal took delivery of three more McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 widebodied aircraft in 1980.

These planes enabled the launch of new routes - to Atlanta on 1 June, and to Hong Kong on 1 August, though in the latter Cathay Pacific and Laker Airways were also permitted without restriction on frequency or fares. Routes to San Juan, Puerto Rico's Isla Verde International Airport, and Dallas/Ft. Worth followed on 26 October. It also enabled the airline to replace the Boeing 707s, with which it had inaugurated another new route to St. Louis in April of that year, with its newly delivered DC-10 widebodies at the end of October when St. Louis became a stop on the new Dallas route. During that year, the company also added Tangier to its North African network.

This accelerated pace of growth made BCal the fastest growing member airline of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in both 1980 and 1981.

BCal received a boost during 1980, when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved carriers (BCal, Cathay Pacific and Laker - subject to ratification) on the London - Hong Kong route to be able to pick up and put down passengers at intermediate stops in the Gulf states as the Hong Kong route was not otherwise expected to generate enough revenue for four carriers. For BCal this meant using their Dubai refuelling stop to carry passengers, cargo and mail between London and Dubai and Dubai and Hong Kong, despite objections from British Airways (BA) which already had such rights for Dubai and Bahrain.