British Caledonian

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Livery of British Caledonian on an Airbus A310-200 circa 1984

British Caledonian Boeing 707 at Gatwick Airport June 1975.

View of the port (left) number 1 & 2 Pratt & Whitney JT3C jet engines of a British Caledonian Boeing 707, June 1975.

British Caledonian Boeing 707, registration G-AXRS, shown at Prestwick International Airport circa 1972. The aircraft operated the inaugural flight between London Gatwick and Houston on October 23, 1977. It suffered engine separation during a cargo flight in 1998, and was scrapped.

British Caledonian came into being in November 1970 when the Scottish charter airline Caledonian Airways, at the time Britain's second-largest, wholly privately owned, Independent airline, took over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest Independent British airline as well as the UK's leading Independent scheduled carrier.

The BUA takeover enabled Caledonian to realise its long-held ambition to transform itself into a major scheduled airline.

The merged entity eventually became Britain's foremost Independent, international scheduled airline.

A series of major setbacks during the 1980s as well as the airline's inability to grow to the minimum size to become a viable "Second Force" as envisaged in the 1969 Edwards report led to growing financial difficulties during the second half of that decade. This was the time the airline began looking for a merger partner to improve its competitive position.

British Airways emerged victorious in the ensuing bidding war and gained control of its erstwhile competitor in December 1987.

[edit] A new chapter in British commercial aviation

British Caledonian Airways Ltd. (BCal) was formed on St. Andrews Day (November 30) in 1970 when Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways (BUA) from its previous owner, the British and Commonwealth group, for £6.9m.^[1] Caledonian Airways also purchased three new BAC 1-11-500 aircraft, which British and Commonwealth had leased to BUA, for a further £5m.^[1]

The deal concerning Caledonian's acquisition of BUA from British and Commonwealth did not include the assets of BUIA, BUA's regional affiliate, which BUA's former parent company continued to own.

BCal itself was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd.^[2] A number of other wholly owned subsidiaries were established as well. These included British Caledonian Aircraft Trading, which was set up to acquire and dispose of aircraft on behalf of the airline. It became one of the most profitable parts of the business. BCal also owned two package tour companies - Blue Sky Holidays and Golden Lion Tours - as well as several hotels in Spain and Sierra Leone. In addition, BCal inherited BUA's minority stakes in Gambia Airways and Sierra Leone Airways (SLA).

The airline's formation followed the publication of the Edwards Committee report entitled British Air Transport in the Seventies in 1969.^[3] It recommended the creation of a so-called "Second Force", private sector carrier to take on the state-owned Corporations, i.e. British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), by providing competing domestic and international scheduled services on trunk routes.^[4][5]

The new airline established its headquarters and operational base at Gatwick Airport and the late Sir Adam Thomson, one of the two co-founders as well as one of the main shareholders of Caledonian Airways, became its chairman and chief executive.^[6]

The fleet inherited from both of its predecessors comprised 31 jet aircraft consisting of eleven long-haul aircraft (seven ex-Caledonian Boeing 707-320Cs and four ex-BUA Vickers VC-10-1103/1109s) as well as 20 short-haul planes (twelve BAC 1-11-500s [eight ex-BUA and four ex-Caledonian] and eight BAC 1-11-200s [all ex-BUA]). The merged entity's paid-up share capital was £12m - more than that of any other wholly privately owned, Independent British airline at the time - and its combined workforce numbered 4,400.^[7][8] This made BCal the UK's foremost Independent airline at the time. (Although Dan-Air and Britannia Airways eventually exceeded BCal's total annual passenger numbers from 1975 onwards, BCal maintained its position as Britain's leading Independent international scheduled airline, in terms of both the number of scheduled passengers carried each year as well as in terms of its total yearly scheduled capacity measured in passenger kilometers - the distance covered by its scheduled operation multiplied by the number of scheduled passengers carried within a twelve-month period, throughout its 17-year existence.) The newly created company's output measured in available capacity tonne kilometers - a 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 kilometers - was greater than that of some of the smaller, contemporary European flag carriers, such as Aer Lingus, SABENA or Swissair. By that measure, BCal was about the same size as Australia's flag carrier Qantas.^[8]

The institutional investors that had been instrumental in helping the late Sir Adam Thomson and the late John de la Haye in launching Caledonian Airways back in 1961 were also among the shareholders of the newly constituted airline. They included the AA, GUS, Hogarth Shipping, Lyle Shipping, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC)^[9] - one of the two predecessors of Investors in Industry (as 3i used to be known earlier on), Kleinwort Benson (now part of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein), the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Schroders.^[10] Airways Interests (Thomson), which had been set up at Caledonian's inception a decade earlier as an investment vehicle to hold the stakes of that airline's founders, initially continued holding the late Sir Adam's stake in the new airline combine.^[11] It was subsequently merged into Caledonian Airways (Prestwick).^[11]

The merged entity initially traded under the interim name Caledonian/BUA before adopting the British Caledonian name on September 1, 1971. It carried a total of 2.6 m passengers during its first year of operation.^[10]

During the interim period the VC-10s, five of the eight former BUA 1-11-500s as well as the eight 1-11-200s were operating the merged entities' scheduled services as these aircraft were already configured in a lower density scheduled seating arrangement, with some of the aircraft - notably the long-haul VC-10s - featuring a contemporary standard first and economy, two-class configuration. These aircraft were allocated to the airline's "BUA Division", which was responsible for all scheduled operations, pending full integration.^[11] All passenger-configured former Caledonian aircraft as well as three former BUA 1-11-500s featured a high density, single class seating arrangement. These aircraft were allocated to the company's "Caledonian Division", which was responsible for all charter operations during that period.^[11] Some of the 707s had an all-cargo configuration. Depending on whether these were used to operate scheduled or charter flights, they were either allocated to the "BUA Division" or the "Caledonian Division".^[11] This meant that at that time roughly 55% of the firm's combined aircraft fleet was allocated to its scheduled division whereas the remaining 45% of the fleet was allocated to the charter division. However, as the charter division's aircraft were configured in a higher density seating configuration than the scheduled division's planes and charter flights generally tended to have higher load factors than scheduled services, two-thirds of all passengers - representing the bulk of the new carrier's passenger business - were carried on its charter flights during that time.^[10]

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 - scheduled as well as non-scheduled - during the interim period. Eventually, the attractive Caledonian tartan uniforms became BCal's standard uniform for all female cabin crew members.

Following the end of the interim period, all former BUA aircraft were repainted adopting Caledonian's livery featuring a prominent Scottish Lion Rampant on its aircraft's fins.

The "Second Force" inherited BUA's extensive network of scheduled routes serving the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa and South America. The newly formed airline's future scheduled ambitions received a major boost when the UK Government agreed to transfer BOAC's West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana as well as its North African route to Libya to it.^[12] (These routes represented 3% of BOAC's annual, worldwide turnover.) The Government also agreed to transfer an unused BEA route licence to serve Casablanca in Morocco. 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.^[10]

Another important concession by the Government designed to improve the competitiveness of the "Second Force" was to permit it to provide a first class cabin on its East African routes.^[13] (BUA, from whom BCal inherited these routes, had been prevented from offering a first class on its East African "Skycoach" schedules. To compensate for this loss of competitiveness, the late Sir Freddie Laker, BUA's managing director from 1960 to 1965, had come up with the novel idea of designing a cargo door to be installed on the right-hand side of the forward fuselage of that airline's long-haul VC-10s, where the first class cabin was normally located. This modification permitted the carriage of additional freight instead of first class passengers on the East African routes.^[14])

In addition, BCal became the Government's "chosen instrument of the private sector".^[15] This meant that the Government agreed to accord preferential status to BCal's worldwide scheduled ambitions, especially in the award of additional licences to operate scheduled services on major domestic and international trunk routes.^[15] The Government hoped that putting BCal's requirements ahead of other UK-based Independent airlines' rival scheduled ambitions would help the new "Second Force" develop into a fully fledged, major international scheduled airline, thereby enabling it to acquire the "critical mass" to challenge the Corporation's near-monopoly among UK-based scheduled airlines.

The Central London air terminal at Victoria Station in London's West End, which the "Second Force" inherited from BUA as well, allowed passengers to complete all check-in formalities - including dropping off their hold luggage - before boarding their train to the airport.^[16]

[edit] A force to be reckoned with

BCal commenced scheduled operations from Gatwick to Lagos, Kano and Accra on April 1, 1971.^[17] Scheduled services from Gatwick to Tripoli began on July 1, 1971.^[18] On each of these routes BCal replaced BOAC as the designated UK flag carrier. On November 1, 1971 BCal inaugurated scheduled flights between London Gatwick and Paris Le Bourget Airport, where it replaced BEA's London Heathrow-Paris Le Bourget service and competed with that airline's Heathrow-Paris Orly Airport service.^[19] This was the first time ever that a wholly privately owned, Independent UK airline commenced a fully fledged scheduled service on a major international European trunk route.

BCal ended its 1970/'71 financial year to September 30, 1971 with a profit of £1.7m.^[20]

On November 1, 1972 BCal extended its East African network to the Seychelles.

The same year BCal also introduced a new Edinburgh-Newcastle-Copenhagen regional scheduled service to live up to its claim of being "Scotland's international airline". This service complemented the Glasgow-Newcastle-Amsterdam regional route BCal had inherited from BUA.

1972 was also the year BCal introduced the UK's first-ever "walk-on", "walk-off" type of operation - including a reduced, "no frills" style on-board service - on the two main domestic trunk routes linking London and Scotland, at the time the only profitable scheduled services plying UK mainland domestic trunk routes. The airline introduced simultaneous night-time departures from Gatwick as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh resulting in an overall frequency increase to six daily round-trips on each route. The company charged very low fares on these night-time services, which were marketed under the "Moonjet" trademark.^[21] ("Moonjet" was one of several trademarks BCal had begun using to market specific services during the early 1970s. Other trademarks used at the time included "Interjet" for the airline's domestic jet schedules and "Eurojet" for the company's jet-operated, international European scheduled services. However, these trademarks were dropped some time during the late '70s.) This move, which was modelled on the high-frequency-low-fares operation run by Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), the original "no frills" airline, on the busy San Diego-L.A.-San Francisco air corridor in California, boosted passenger numbers as well as the profitability on both routes.^[22] (Interestingly, Jet Airways, India's leading private sector airline, introduced a similar operation between Mumbai and Delhi as well as Delhi and Bangalore respectively, two of the busiest domestic trunk routes in India, during the 1990s.)

During that year larger capacity, longer range and more fuel-efficient Boeing 707s that had been re-configured featuring a lower density, two-class scheduled configuration began replacing VC-10s on BCal's South American routes, where the 707's greater range enabled the airline to commence non-stop flights between London Gatwick and Rio de Janeiro, as well as on the West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana.

As a result of the then prevailing, ruinous rates in the charter market, which still accounted for well over half of BCal's business at the time, the airline incurred a loss of £194,000 during the financial year to September 30, 1972.^[23]

To support its ambitious expansion plans, BCal acquired a number of additional, second-hand Boeing 707s from various sources through its British Caledonian Aircraft Trading subsidiary during the early 1970s. This included a pair of 320C series aircraft procured on a long-term lease from Britannia Airways featuring a two-class, "widebody look" interior. These aircraft were used to inaugurate the airline's transatlantic scheduled routes to New York and L.A. where the established competition was operating widebodied aircraft, such as the Boeing 747 "jumbo jet". It was thought that the aircraft's widebody style interiors would leave passengers under the impression that BCal was operating widebodied aircraft as well when in fact they were operating older generation, narrowbodied planes. During that time BCal also acquired two additional, second-hand BAC 1-11-500s, which were sourced from Court Line and Transbrasil respectively. (At the same time the airline disposed of some of the 707s that already were in its fleet - including the original pair of 399C series aircraft that were delivered to Caledonian Airways direct from the manufacturer's plant in 1967/'68 [-99 being Boeing's customer designator for Caledonian]. In addition, a VC-10 and a 1-11-200 were sold to the RAE, which was using the aircraft as testbeds.)

BCal inaugurated its two transatlantic "flagship" services from London Gatwick to New York JFK and from Gatwick to Los Angeles International Airport on April 1, 1973. Again, this occasion marked the first time that an Independent British airline commenced transatlantic scheduled operations on what are sometimes referred to as two of aviation's "Blue Riband" routes linking the UK and the US. (Although British Eagle had managed to get a licence for a daily London Heathrow - New York JFK scheduled service due to commence in 1965, its inaugural flight was cancelled when the then UK Minister of Transport revoked its licence as a result of BOAC's last minute intervention.)

In 1973 BCal also inaugurated its fourth scheduled domestic trunk route between London Gatwick and Manchester (in addition to the Gatwick-Glasgow, Gatwick-Edinburgh and Gatwick-Belfast routes inherited from BUA). The new service was subcontracted to British Island Airways (BIA), BUIA's successor, which was operating two daily return trips on that route using its Handley Page Dart Herald turboprops.

On March 20, 1974 BCal switched its Gatwick-Paris services to the then brand-new Charles de Gaulle airport near the Northern Paris suburb of Roissy-en-France, thus becoming the first scheduled carrier to operate between London and the new Paris airport.

To further extend the network's reach and its connectivity, BCal agreed to host Dan-Air's new, twice daily Gatwick-Newcastle flights, which commenced on April 20, 1974, in its computerised reservation system (CRS).^[24]

June 1974 saw the launch of BCal's non-stop Gatwick-Brussels scheduled route, the third European trunk route on which the airline operated scheduled services in competition with the incumbent flag carriers' established services from Heathrow. (In addition to Gatwick-Paris, the company already operated daily non-stop Gatwick-Amsterdam scheduled services, the route being one of the European routes inherited from BUA.)

[edit] Plan S

The creation of British Airways (BA) as a result of the 1974 BEA-BOAC merger (one of the other two main recommendations contained in the 1969 Edwards Report on the future of British civil aviation) came against the background of the first global oil crisis in the wake of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, which led to the quadrupling of the price of a barrel of oil as a consequence of OPEC's decision to boycott the West in retaliation for its support of Israel during that war. This meant that the newly merged Corporation's original revenue and profit projections were far too optimistic. During that time BA began exerting pressure on the Government, at the time its sole owner as well as the regulator for all UK airlines, to curtail the activities of its Independent competitors generally and of the "Second Force" in particular.

The difficult operating environment at the time did not affect BA alone. In fact, the major scheduled airlines were all losing horrendous amounts of money at the time. The sudden spike in the oil price caused a major recession during the second half of 1974 as well as the first half of 1975 with much reduced demand for air travel. This, in turn, led to the collapse of a number of prominent travel companies and their associated airlines - most notably the Court Line group and Horizon Holidays, the latter having provided work for three BCal short-haul aircraft prior to its collapse. There was also massive overcapacity on the North Atlantic.

These circumstances forced BCal to put in place a major programme of retrenchment, known internally as Plan "S" ("S" for "survival") at the time, to avoid finding itself in a Court Line type of situation.^[25][26]

Plan "S" began to be implemented from November 1, 1974 onwards. It resulted in route cut-backs - including the suspension of the transatlantic "flagship" services, the immediate withdrawal and subsequent disposal of the remaining VC-10 long-haul aircraft, the temporary grounding of a number of short-haul aircraft pending disposal as well as several hundred redundancies among the company's staff (800 out of a total workforce of 5,600).^[27]

In addition to withdrawing from the prestigious long-haul routes to New York and L.A. after only 18 months, other specific measures the airline took at the time to ensure its survival included dropping all scheduled flights to Belfast, Copenhagen, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Tunis, indefinitely suspending scheduled services on the Glasgow-Southampton route as well as cutting the number of frequencies on the Gatwick-Glasgow and Gatwick-Edinburgh routes from six to four daily round trips. The company furthermore retired its remaining two VC-10s. One of these aircraft was sold to Air Malawi enabling it to take over the Gatwick-Nairobi-Blantyre route, which BCal had been contracted to operate. (The other aircraft was acquired by the Omani government.) Moreover, eight of the 14-strong 1-11-500 fleet were temporarily grounded. Four of these aircraft were subsequently sold. (Dan-Air acquired two^[28] and Monarch Airlines one of these aircraft in 1975/'76.) A fifth aircraft was disposed of to Philippine Airlines in 1976. Two of the temporarily grounded aircraft that remained in BCal's fleet were leased out to Air Malta and Austrian Airlines respectively for the duration of the 1975 summer timetable period. Another aircraft was stationed at West Berlin's Tegel Airport during the month of July of that year to fulfill a short-term charter contract to carry Turkish migrant workers to and from Istanbul on behalf of a local tour operator. BCal also decided to increase its 707 freighter fleet from one to four aircraft and to acquire a five-seater Piper PA-23 "Aztec" for serving the rapidly growing executive charter market. These changes to the composition of the BCal fleet left the airline with 25 operational aircraft for the 1975 summer season, comprising eleven Boeing 707-320C long-haul aircraft (including four pure freighters) and 13 BAC 1-11 short-haul planes (six larger series 500 and seven smaller series 200 models) as well as a single Piper "Aztec". In a further move to reduce its operating costs, BCal decided to contract out its scheduled operations between Gatwick and Le Touquet as well as between Gatwick and Rotterdam to BIA. The reason for replacing BCal's 1-11-200 jet aircraft with that airline's Herald turboprops on these routes with the beginning of the 1975 summer timetable period was the high price of jet fuel, which had made BCal's own jet operation on the aforesaid routes uneconomic.

Even during this period of severe retrenchment, BCal continued launching scheduled services to new destinations. Dakar joined the airline's network on November 1, 1974, followed by Kinshasa on April 1, 1975. From 1975 onwards, the BIA-operated BCal service to Manchester was extended to Blackpool and the Isle of Man during the peak summer travel period. Furthermore, BCal agreed to continue holding details of the Gatwick-Belfast service - an important feeder route for its long-haul services, which had been taken over by British Midland Airways (as bmi used to be known then) following BCal's withdrawal from that route - in its CRS.

As a result of the "success" of Plan "S", BCal's fortunes quickly recovered. The airline operation itself managed to return to the black during the financial year ended September 30, 1975 with a small profit of £250,000 after having lost £4.3m the year before.^[29] (BCal's total loss for the 1973/'74 financial year was £5.6m.) However, BCal's operating profit for the 1974/'75 financial reporting period translated into an overall loss of £366,000 after taking into account the heavy costs relating to the early disposal of the remaining VC-10s and the grounding of several other aircraft as well as the voluntary redundancy programme to achieve the required reduction in headcount.^[30]

[edit] Moving the goal posts

The then Secretary of State for Trade Peter Shore, conducted a review of the Government's aviation policy and in 1976 announced a new "spheres of influence" policy that ended "dual designation" for British airlines on all long-haul routes. As a result of this new aviation policy BA and BCal were no longer permitted to run competing scheduled services on the same long-haul routes and the latter was forced to withdraw from the East African routes inherited from BUA as well as the London-New York and London-Los Angeles routes, leading to the revocation of BCal's Gatwick-JFK and Gatwick-L.A. licences.^[31] In return, BCal became the sole British flag carrier to the entire South American mainland by taking over the former BA routes to Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.^[31] The Government's new "spheres of influence" aviation policy effectively confined BCal's long-haul scheduled operations to two continents only, i.e. Africa and South America.^[32] The loss of BCal's East African routes enabled the airline to replace the one-stop scheduled service via Nairobi to Lusaka with non-stop flights.

During 1976 BCal's recovery continued leading to the introduction of two new scheduled routes to Algiers and Oran and the reinstatement of scheduled services to Tunis. It also led to BCal's decision to bring the operation of its Gatwick-Manchester service back in-house by replacing the two daily round-trips BIA had operated with its Herald turboprops on that route since the route's launch in 1973 with a three-times-daily BCal 1-11 schedule starting January 1, 1977.

BCal ended its 1975/'76 financial year with a healthy profit of £5.6m.

[edit] Laying the foundation for further growth

Main article: British Caledonian in 1977

[edit] The Gatwick Year

Main article: British Caledonian in 1978

[edit] Further diversification and expansion at the end of the 1970s

Main article: British Caledonian in 1979

[edit] The 1980s roller coaster

Main article: British Caledonian in the 1980s

[edit] Reasons for the failure of the Second Force concept and for British Caledonian's demise

Main article: Reasons for the failure of British Caledonian

[edit] Facts of interest

• The late Sir Adam Thomson was born on July 7, 1926 into a working class family in Glasgow. He passed away on May 23, 2000 aged 73. He was knighted in 1983 for his services to the airline industry.^[33]

• The late Sir Adam was chairman of the Association of European airlines from 1977 until 1978.

• The late Sir Adam reportedly made the following statement during an address at the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles some time during the early 1980s: "Recession is when you have to tighten your belt. Depression is when you have no belt to tighten. When you have lost your trousers, you are in the airline industry."^[34]

• According to contemporary press reports, the late Sir Adam commented on Air Europe's plan to launch several new routes from Gatwick to Europe in competition with BCal during the second half of the 1980s that there was no sense in the two small boys beating each other about at Gatwick while the big, fat cat was sitting at Heathrow.

• During a meeting of the BCal board to discuss what impact the government-sanctioned route exchange between BA and BCal would have on BCal's future vis-a-vis a privatised BA, the late Sir Adam passed a hand-written memorandum saying "For BCal, the writing is now on the wall." round the boardroom.^[35]

• The late Earl Mountbatten of Burma was on board BCal's inaugural Gatwick-JFK flight on April 1, 1973. The flight diverted to Boston due to inclement weather in the New York area.^[36]

• BCal's aircraft were named after famous Scots and well-known Scottish places.

• Some BCal aircraft were allocated out of sequence registrations. For instance G-BCAL was allocated to one of the Boeing 707s, G-CLAN and G-CELT were the registrations of the Piper "Navajo Chieftains", G-DCIO was the registration of the eighth DC-10 and G-HUGE^[37] was the Boeing 747 "Combi" registration.

• All BCal aircraft were using retreaded tyres.

• BCal was a full member of IATA since its inception through its membership of both the organisation's Trade Association as well as its Tariff Co-ordination body.

• BCal had an exemplary industrial relations record. It never lost a full day's work as a result of industrial action, which was remarkable in strike-prone 1970s' and early '80s' Britain.^[10]

• BCal won many prestigious UK travel industry awards, including Executive Travel magazine's "Airline of the Year" award for 1983.^[38]

• BCal named its Gatwick airside lounge for its premium passengers the Clansmen Lounge.

• BCal held just under one-fifth of all Gatwick slots at the time of its takeover by BA.^[39]

• BCal was one of Gatwick's three handling agents during its 17-year existence. (The others were BA and Gatwick Handling.)

• BCal had its on air freight terminal at Heathrow.^[10] It used to operate two weekly all-cargo flights from there until the early 1980s.

• BCal owned a handling agent at Hong Kong's old Kai Tak Airport and had its own air terminal in the city centre during the 1980s.

• The MOD awarded BCal the contract to carry members of the UK armed forces and their dependants between the UK and Hong Kong.

• BCal provided the aircraft, a Boeing 707 and a BAC 1-11, that carried the late Pope John Paul II and his entourage during the official 1982 papal visit to the UK.^[40]

• BCal's 1985 re-launch of scheduled Gatwick-JFK services coincided with the introduction of its "door-to-door" limousine service.^[41]

• A pair of Boeing 747s BA had acquired following its takeover of BCal continued wearing BCal's livery for nearly two years after the airline had ceased to exist because the Hong Kong Air Transport Licensing Authority refused transferring BCal's licence to operate the Gatwick-Hong Kong route to BA.

• A female first officer flying BAC 1-11s for BCal during the 1970s and '80s went on to become a BA Concorde captain following BA's acquisition of BCal.

• Maureen Wimshurst, a BCal cabin crew member during the early 1970s, won the 1974 Miss London Airport award.

• Tim Clark, vice president of Emirates Airline, and Vic Sheppard, Emirates' vice president UK and Ireland, were former BCal employees.

• Atul and Virendra Patel, the owners of a small London travel agency named Travel Eye Ltd., reportedly submitted a counter bid to take over the ailing BCal on August 13, 1987. According to contemporary news reports, they were prepared to match the price BA had agreed to pay for the entire British Caledonian Group on July 15, 1987. However, BCal maintained that it had never received any such bid. The Patel brothers themselves decided to withdraw their bid a few days after it had become public.^[42]

[edit] Incidents and accidents

BCal had an unblemished safety record throughout its 17-year existence.

During that time there never was a fatal accident involving a BCal aircraft as a result of good airmanship and an extremely high safety consciousness throughout the organisation. This made the airline stand out from many of its contemporary rivals. It also was one of the company's greatest contributions to commercial aviation.

According to the annual airline safety review for the year 1975 conducted by Flight International, BCal was one of the top three safest airlines in the world, behind Qantas and ahead of Lufthansa.

However, there were a few noteworthy non-fatal incidents involving BCal aircraft.

• On January 28, 1972 a BCal Vickers VC-10-1109 (registration: G-ARTA) sustained severe structural damage as a result of an exceptionally hard landing at Gatwick at the end of a short ferry flight from Heathrow, where the aircraft had been diverted due to Gatwick being fog-bound and where all passengers had disembarked. A survey of the aircraft's damage had revealed that its airframe had been bent out of shape and that it required extensive repairs to be restored to an airworthy condition. The airline's senior management decided that these repairs were not cost-effective. The aircraft was written off and a decision taken to have it scrapped. It was eventually broken up at Gatwick in 1975.^[43] (This aircraft had been the VC-10's prototype. It had subsequently been converted as a 1109 series passenger aircraft before being sold in 1969 to Laker Airways, which immediately leased it out to MEA. Laker Airways sold the aircraft to BUA in 1970.)

• During the summer of 1976 a BCal BAC 1-11-500 (registration: G-AZMF) burst all its main wheel tyres while landing at Gatwick at the end of a scheduled flight from Jersey. All occupants were safely evacuated via the aircraft's emergency exits.

• During 1981 a BCal McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aquaplaned after touching down on the wet runway at Kano Airport in northern Nigeria. Nobody was hurt in that incident.

[edit] Code data

• Former IATA Code: BR
• Former callsign: Caledonian

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Thomson, Adam (1999). High Risk: The Politics of the Air. Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-2839-9599-8. 
• Eglin, Roger, and Ritchie, Berry (1980). Fly me, I'm Freddie. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-2977-7746-7. 
• Simons, Graham M. (1999). It was nice to fly with friends! The story of Air Europe. GMS Enterprises. ISBN 1-8703-8469-5. 
• Simons, Graham M. (1993). The Spirit of Dan-Air. GMS Enterprises. ISBN 1-8703-8420-2. 
• Calder, Simon (2002). No Frills - The Truth behind the Low-cost Revolution in the Skies. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-8522-7932-X. 
• Aviation News - UK and Irish airlines since 1945 (Update 5 [British United Airways], Vol. 66, No. 3, March 2004. HPC Publishing.  (Aviation News online)
• British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1977/8. British Airports Authority. 
• British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1978/9. British Airports Authority. 
• Flight International. Reed Business Information. ISSN 0015-3710.  (various backdated issues relating to British Caledonian and the "Second Force" concept, 1969-1988)
• OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. OAG Worldwide. ISSN 1466-8718.  (various backdated issues relating to British Caledonian scheduled flight information, 1970-1988)

[edit] External links

• British Caledonian web site
• Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on proposed British Airways takeover of British Caledonian
• BA-BCal merger as reported on BBC News, 16 July, 1987
• contemporary timetable images
• late-1980s line-up of British Caledonian DC-10s at London-Gatwick's central pier
• 1986 portrait of Sir Adam Thomson, at the time chairman of British Caledonian Airways and the British Caledonian Group, standing inside Gatwick's hangar 3
• Daily Telegraph obituary of Sir Peter Masefield, BCal's former deputy chairman from 1978-1987
• History of British Caledonian's VC-10s