British Caledonian (BCal) was a private independent airline in the United Kingdom that operated from 1970 until it merged with British Airways in 1988. It operated primarily from London Gatwick Airport in south-east England. BCal was formed by the merger of Caledonian Airwaysthen the UK's second-largest, independent charter airline and British United Airways (BUA).then the largest British independent airline and the UK's leading independent scheduled carrier 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. The carrier slogan was Let's go British Caledonian in the 1970s and We never forget you have a choice in the 1980s. 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 it at serious risk of collapse. British Caledonian began looking for a merger partner to improve its competitive position. In December 1987, British Airways (BA) bought the airline. The Caledonian name was used to rebrand BA's Gatwick-based subsidiary British Airtours as Caledonian Airways.
History
Inception
On St. Andrew's Day (30 November) in 1970, Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways (BUA) from British and Commonwealth (B&C) for £6.9 million."BCAL Atlantic growth", Flight International, 20 September 1973, p. 466"Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian", Flight International, 3 August 1972, p. 159 Caledonian Airways also purchased three new BAC One-Eleven 500 aircraft, which B&C had leased to BUA, for a further £5 million."Second Force at last", Flight International, 29 October 1970, p. 659
Caledonian's acquisition of BUA from B&C did not include the assets of British United Island Airways (BUIA), BUA's regional affiliate."Independence for BUIA", Flight International, 30 July 1970, p. 151
BCal was a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonian Airways Ltd.the new name of Airways Interests (Thomson)"Staff signed up", Flight International, 1 April 1971, p. 444 BCal itself had a number of subsidiaries as well. Amongst these were Caledonian Airways Equipment Holdings and Caledonian Airways (Leasing), which were set up to acquire and dispose of aircraft on behalf of the airline as well as to sell maintenance, training and management expertise to third parties."BCAL changes course", Flight International, 31 October 1974, p. 588 BCal also owned two package holiday companiesBlue Sky Holidays and Golden Lion Tours as well as several hotels in Spain and Sierra Leone. BCal also inherited BUA's minority stakes in Gambia Airways, Sierra Leone Airways"World Airline Survey", Flight International, 11 April 1968, p. 517 and Uganda Aviation Services.
The airline's formation followed publication of the Edwards report entitled British Air Transport in the Seventies in 1969."The Edwards Report — Principal recommendations", Flight International, 8 May 1969, p. 745 and a subsequent White paper from the government"Government sets the course", Flight International, 20 November 1969, p. 760 The report recommended the creation of a "Second Force", private sector carrier to take on the state-owned corporations — British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) — by providing competing domestic and international scheduled services on trunk routes. The government rejected the proposed transfer of routes from BOAC and BEA to the Second Force, and held that dual designation on a route should be open to any British independent."Government sets the course", Flight International, 20 November 1969, p. 759 The new airline established its headquarters and operational base at Gatwick Airport and Sir Adam Thomson, one of the five co-founders as well as one of the main shareholders of Caledonian Airways, became its chairman and managing director.
BCal was a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) at its inception as a result of inheriting BUA's membership. This included membership of IATA's trade association as well as participation in tariff co-ordination with other member airlines in the organisation's annual traffic conferences. BCal also had its own air freight terminal at HeathrowIt operated two weekly all-cargo flights from there until the early 1980s., Chapter 4, Competition Commission website
BCal inherited from its predecessors 31 jet aircraft: 11 long-haul aircraft (seven ex-Caledonian Boeing 707s and four ex-BUA Vickers VC10) and 20 short-haul planes (eight ex-BUA and four ex-Caledonian BAC One-Eleven 500s and eight ex-BUA BAC One-Eleven 200s). The issued share capital was £12 million — more than that of any other wholly private, British independent airline at the time — and its workforce numbered 4,400.including 450 flightdeck and 800 cabin crew, 1,000 maintenance personnel and 700 ramp workersCaledonian/BUA, Editorial, Flight International, 29 October 1970, p. 655Fly me, I'm Freddie!, Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, p. 130
This made BCal the UK's foremost independent airline of the time. Although Dan-Air and Britannia Airways exceeded BCal's total annual passenger numbers from 1975, BCal maintained its position as Britain's leading independent international scheduled airline, in terms of both the number of scheduled passengers carried each year and the total yearly scheduled capacity measured in passenger kilometres,the distance covered by its scheduled operation multiplied by the number of scheduled passengers carried within a 12-month period throughout its 17-year existence.) The newly created company's output measured in available capacity tonne kilometresa figure arrived at by multiplying the number of [metric] tonnes available for the carriage of revenue load (passengers, cargo and mail) on each flight sector by the sector's distance in kilometres was greater than that of some of the smaller, contemporary European flag carriers, such as Aer Lingus, Air India,Gatwick Airport: The first 50 years, Woodley, C., The History Press, Stroud, 2014, p. 103 Sabena, or Swissair. By that measure, BCal was about the same size as Australia's flag carrier Qantas.
The institutional investors that had helped Sir Adam Thomson and John de la Haye launch Caledonian Airways back in 1961The Caledonian punchbag, Flight International, 21 March 1987, p. 33 were also among the shareholders of the newly constituted airline. They included The Automobile Association (AA), Great Universal Stores (GUS), Hogarth Shipping,"£30m value put on Caledonian". Flight International, 26 May 1979, p. 1714 Lyle Shipping, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) — one of the two predecessors of Investors in Industry,3i's former name Kleinwort Benson, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Schroders."Second Force at last, Flight International, 29 October 1970, p. 660 (Airways Interests (Thomson), which had been set up at Caledonian's inception a decade earlier as an investment vehicle for that airline's founders to enable them to maintain control, was renamed Caledonian Airways Ltd and became the new group holding company.)Thomson, A. (1990), pp. 94, 258"GUS Share in Caledonian" Flight International, 9 November 1967, p. 749
Before adopting the British Caledonian name, the new airline legally constituted two separate entities — Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd and British United Airways Ltd. These traded together under the interim name Caledonian//BUA until September 1971."It's British Caledonian" Flight International, 9 September 1971, p. 395"World Airlines", Flight International, 18 May 1972, Supplement 17 The combined airline carried a total of 2.6 million passengers during its first year of operation.
For accounting purposes, BCal's aircraft were respectively allocated to a "BUA Division" and "Caledonian Division" during the interim period. The former was responsible for all IATA activities. This encompassed all scheduled services. The latter was responsible for all non-IATA work. This included all non-scheduled operations. At that time, two-thirds of all passengers were carried on charter flights.accounting for 60% of revenues
During that period, former BUA air hostesses still wearing that airline's blue uniforms were working alongside their tartan-clad, former Caledonian counterparts in the cabins of all passenger flights. Eventually, the Caledonian tartan uniforms became BCal's standard for female staff.
Following the interim period, Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd and British United Airways Ltd were merged into British Caledonian Airways Ltd (BCal). All former BUA aircraft were repainted adopting Caledonian's livery featuring a prominent Scottish Lion Rampant on its aircraft's fins. At that time, all aircraft were named after famous Scots and well-known Scottish places. This tradition was continued throughout the airline's 17-year existence. Some BCal aircraft were also allocated out-of-sequence registrations. (For instance, G-BCAL was allocated to one of the Boeing 707s, G-CLANPiper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain G-CLAN (photo) and G-SCOT"B.CAL opens feeder link", Flight International, 21 January 1978, p. 165 were the registrations of the Piper Navajo Chieftains, G-DCIO was the registration of the eighth DC-10 and G-HUGE was the Boeing 747 Combi registration"BCal Saudi routes approved", Flight International, 9 March 1985, p. 7)
The "Second Force" inherited BUA's extensive network of scheduled routes serving the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa and South America."BCAL Atlantic growth" Flight International, 20 September 1973, p. 467 Its scheduled ambitions were aided by the British Government transferring to it BOAC's West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana as well as the corporation's North African route to Libya."Rest of the Package" Flight International, 1 April 1971, p. 440 These routes represented only 3% of BOAC's annual, worldwide turnover."Green light for second force" Flight International 6 August 1970, p. 186"Second force under way — The second-force statement" Flight International, 13 August 1970, p. 228Second force under way, Flight International, 13 August 1970, p. 227Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian, Flight International, 3 August 1972, p. 160
The Government also agreed to let it serve Casablanca in Morocco from Gatwick in competition with BEA's service from Heathrow."Caledonian/BUA" Flight International, 12 August 1971, p. 245"British Airways loses Casablanca ..." Flight International, 28 February 1974, p. 257 Furthermore, the Government agreed to license BCal to operate non-stop scheduled services between London and Paris and to begin negotiations with the French authorities to secure reciprocal approval for BCal to be able to commence scheduled operations on what was then the busiest international air route in Europe. BCal moreover received Government assurances that it would be designated as the UK's sole flag carrier on all routes transferred to it and that it would be assisted in obtaining traffic rights for additional, selected scheduled routes where it wished to compete with the corporations, including the lucrative London—New York and London—Los Angeles routes.