British Caledonian

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before. Officially this was presented as a "merger between equals" but within the industry it was widely acknowledged as a mutually agreed rescue deal to avoid the collapse of BCal. In addition, BA, which had been privatised only in February of that year, was keen to get hold of its main home-grown competitor's most valuable assets. These included BCal's lucrative traffic rights to those parts of the world BA could not serve itself as a result of the now defunct "Second Force" policy. This itself had resulted in a "spheres of influence" policy for BA and BCal that had prevented both airlines from competing with each other on a number of important long-haul routes. BA also saw this as a necessary move to fill the gaps in its global route map to acquire the economies of scale that would permit it to compete against the giant US carriers on a level-playing field. BCal's financial difficulties furthermore presented an opportunity for BA to forestall any competitive threat a revitalised BCal could pose to it in future, either on its own or in alliance with another airline. It therefore wanted to get hold of these assets before any competitor could lay its hands on them. Moreover, BA wanted to prevent BCal's assets from passing into the hands of any foreign-owned or controlled competitors. It felt that under such a scenario the long-term competitiveness of the entire UK air transport industry was threatened.

2572:. BCal's senior management saw this as a major threat to the company's continuing existence as the UK's second largest international scheduled airline. According to BCal's own calculations, the relevant figures for 1983 had shown that BA alone accounted for 83% of all UK scheduled airline capacity measured in tonne kilometers as opposed to a mere 13–14% for BCal. These figures also showed that BA carried seven-and-a-half times as many passengers as BCal, and that Heathrow's share of international scheduled air traffic was five-and-a-half times greater than Gatwick's (79% and 14% respectively). This meant that a privatised BA on this scale would enjoy far greater financial clout than BCal. It also meant that BA's market power would be disproportionate compared with that of any other UK airline as a result of its much greater economies of scale. Furthermore, the Government's decision to proceed with BA's privatisation inevitably meant the end of the "Second Force" policy, which had guided BCal's development since its inception. In addition, the transfer of BA's ownership from the public to the private sector meant that BCal could no longer rely on the indirect protection Government ownership afforded it to prevent BA from abusing its power — for example, by engaging in anti-competitive behaviour against BCal. 3695:

relinquishing BCal's unused route licences and to not oppose Air Europe's designation as an additional UK flag carrier on Gatwick—Rome. BA also had to give a legally binding undertaking that it would not seek to increase its share of Gatwick slots above 25% through any additional acquisitions of other airlines and/or their slots until 1992. These measures were primarily intended as safeguards for other airlines that required access to a sufficient number of attractive slots at Gatwick to launch viable scheduled services in competition with BA. Otherwise, BA's dominant position at both of London's main airports would have made it virtually impossible for the much smaller independents to replace and enhance capacity lost as a result of BCal's takeover, especially on routes where BCal had competed with BA and which accounted for more than half of its net revenue earned from scheduled services.

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represented, and went on to argue that this could force the British Government to make concessions to its overseas counterparts that were not in the interest of the British air transport industry to preserve BCal's UK flag carrier status. BA moreover backed up its arguments with the threat that it would immediately apply to the CAA to have all of BCal's licences to operate scheduled air services revoked. BA based these threats on a clause in the 1982 Civil Aviation Act, which states that any airline claiming UK flag carrier status must be substantially owned and controlled by individuals who are UK nationals or entities whose headquarters are located in the UK.

2947: 3575:. It also thought that BCal's lucrative long-haul routes from Gatwick to Africa and the Middle East would give it access to markets it could not profitably serve itself from relatively sparsely populated Scandinavia, and that this would make a good fit with its short-haul European routes — especially its comprehensive schedule to the UK from Scandinavia. SAS furthermore thought that by agreeing to transfer these services from Heathrow to Gatwick, it could also help solve BCal's long-standing problem of not operating enough short-haul flights to improve its long-haul loads from Gatwick. 2339: 1748: 1841: 1050: 414: 2869: 4078: 1732: 4090: 1182: 3265: 2801: 11758: 4118: 4046: 1329: 4110: 3060:'s separate short-haul operations in a new joint venture that would have enabled both airlines to acquire the economies of scale to compete with a privatised BA on a level playing field. Another objective of this exercise was to smooth out each other's peaks and troughs, for BCal's peaks occurred during week days while Air Europe's occurred on week-ends. This meant that both airlines could offer their spare capacities to each other to achieve an overall higher level of equipment utilisation and higher 2713:

claimed that privatising BA in its existing shape would allow it to dominate and destroy its competition. They also regarded BA's continuing dominance as incompatible with the CAA's goal of a less-regulated air transport market. BA countered the independents' contentions by maintaining that rather than benefiting consumers through increased competition, the independents' intent generally, and BCal's in particular, would merely result in substituting its own services with those of other carriers.

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BCal were no longer permitted to run competing scheduled services on long-haul routes, and BCal had to withdraw from the East African routes inherited from BUA as well as from the London—New York and London—Los Angeles routes. BCal lost its licences to New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Toronto – routes it had stopped running in 1974. It gained Lusaka (Zambia) In return, BCal became the sole British flag carrier to the entire South American mainland by taking over the former BA routes to

2515:—Gatwick—Amsterdam service. The Caribbean Airways and Air Seychelles contracts used spare capacity on BCal's DC-10-30s, while the Surinam Airways wet lease utilised the ex-Laker DC-10-10s operated by British Caledonian Charter. Although BCal's airline operation incurred a loss of £655,000 in the financial year to 31 October 1983, the airline managed to make an overall pre-tax profit of £2.6 million. This translated into a £300,000 retained profit at group level. 12241: 11508: 3407:

It was planning to launch 11 new routes from Gatwick to Europe, thereby replacing and enhancing the services BCal had provided. Given a combined BA-BCal's superior financial strength, considerably lower borrowing costs and far greater economies of scale, Air Europe's management felt that it would be imprudent to launch these new routes if it had to compete with BA out of Heathrow and Gatwick as well. Therefore, its

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decided to accept the Government's decision because they estimated the two Saudi Arabian routes BA was going to transfer to be worth £18 million in additional annual profits. This would be only £2 million less than what BCal expected to earn in extra yearly profits from its existing network had it been able to transfer its entire operation to Heathrow. Given these magnitudes and Heathrow's already tight

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into four discrete businesses, each of which with its own management accountable for the performance of that unit. The businesses would be a long-haul operation under the BCal brand, a short-haul operation merged with Air Europe's existing short-haul operation using the BCal brand on business routes and the Air Europe brand in leisure markets, and an engineering and a ground handling unit.

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airlines. These steps included inviting BCal and Britain's other independent airlines to apply to the CAA for route licences to operate scheduled services to destinations in the British Isles and in Continental Europe that were not already served from Gatwick, thereby increasing the reach of the airport's scheduled route network as well as providing more connecting traffic for BCal.

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international trunk routes. 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 achieve the critical mass to challenge the corporations' near-monopoly among UK-based scheduled airlines.

3353:. In addition, BA's impending privatisation and the Government's refusal to fully implement the recommendations contained in the CAA's airline competition White Paper meant that BCal was unable to acquire the economies of scale it needed to compete with these airlines on a level playing field. This prevented BCal from achieving higher volumes over which to spread its 1440:

and schedules being expanded. Business was booming with planes being fuller than at any time in the firm's history. The airline recorded a pre-tax profit of £12.2 million during its 1977/78 financial year to 31 October 1978. This translated into a £10 million retained profit. It was the company's best financial result since its formation back in November 1970. BCal's

855:" type service on the two main domestic trunk routes linking London and Scotland. The airline introduced simultaneous night-time departures from Gatwick, Glasgow and Edinburgh, resulting in an overall frequency increase to six daily round-trips on each route. The company charged a very low £5 one-way fare on these night-time services, which were marketed under the 2254:. BCal had also agreed to offer a limited number of low fares that would match the lowest fares Laker had proposed. The CAA decided to license BCal to operate unlimited scheduled services between London and Hong Kong., rejecting both Cathay Pacific's and Laker's applications, clearing the way for BCal to become the second British scheduled carrier on that route. 3518:, the then chairman of the SAS group, was well aware that so-called "nationality clauses" in most bilateral air services agreements and most countries' legal framework regulating the ownership of their airlines would restrict SAS's direct involvement in BCal's finances to acquiring a minority stake in its holding company. SAS therefore dispatched a team of 2773:, which it had successfully pursued since the late 1970s. To be seen as even-handed by both parties and to counter BA's accusations of displaying favouritism towards BCal, the Government required BCal to hand over to BA its loss-making South American routes as well as its unused licences to serve a number of additional destinations in the US and 499:(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. The new airline established its headquarters and operational base at 1615:

Distribution Rules". It came into effect on 1 April 1978 and was applied retroactively from the beginning of April 1977. These rules were designed to achieve a fairer distribution of traffic between London Heathrow and London Gatwick, the UK's two main international gateway airports. The policy was aimed at increasing Gatwick's

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bigger, better financed and commercially far more aggressive US carriers from undercutting BCal with loss-leading fares cross-subsidised with profits those carriers' vast domestic networks generated, as well as to stop them from marginalising the UK carrier by adding capacity far in excess of what the market could sustain.

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value to BA. BA's materially inferior offer to buy out the shareholders of the British Caledonian Group led to BCal's senior management turn against BA and to recommend to their shareholders not to accept the revised bid. Instead, with the backing of BCal's controlling shareholder 3i, a desperate search for a "

2465:

penetrate with its new aircraft if it wanted to break the stranglehold Boeing had enjoyed in this market segment with the 737 for over 15 years. Airbus knew that the major US carriers would be suspicious of the new aircraft's commercial credentials if only state-owned (and at the time subsidised) airlines (

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to achieve a substantial reduction in operating costs and to permit an increase in frequencies. There were to be fewer services to Africa — where the new management wanted to keep only the really profitable routes to Nigeria and Ghana — while a second daily service to New York JFK was to be

3406:

Air Europe was concerned that a new entity combining BA and BCal had the power to destroy the UK's remaining independent airlines, especially with regard to their ability to compete with such a behemoth. At the time, Air Europe had ambitions of its own to become a major short-haul scheduled operator.

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to replace the DC-10s on that route as soon as this was justified by increased demand. It also promised to give a major boost to Australia's inbound tourism from the UK and to deliver a steady stream of international transfer passengers to Ansett. BCal's application did not succeed, mainly because of

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BCal was so pleased with the DC-10's performance that it decided to convert both of the options it had taken when placing the original order for two aircraft during 1976 into firm orders for delivery in autumn 1978 and spring 1979 respectively. However, a subsequent strike at the manufacturer's plant

4919:

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 VC10s and the grounding of several other aircraft as well as the voluntary redundancy programme to

3679:

The referral of BA's original bid to take over the entire British Caledonian Group to the MMC had resulted in the imposition of several conditions before the proposed deal was allowed to go ahead. These included BA releasing a minimum of 5,000 annual slots BCal had held at Gatwick to competitors and

3583:

On 11 December, the CAA told SAS that it needed a British investor to match the SAS bid or the CAA would recommend to the Department of Trade and Industry that BCal no longer qualified as a British airline and the trade secretary indicated to the House of Commons that in that case he would be likely

3566:

SAS's rationale for launching a counter bid for BCal was the airline's desire not to be left behind in the then widely expected scramble for consolidation in the airline industry by becoming part of one of the four or five global airline groupings that were predicted to dominate the entire industry.

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Had parallel talks to merge with UTA, at the time the largest wholly private airline in France and the closest French equivalent to a "Second Force", succeeded, this would have resulted in a near perfect fit of both airlines' long-haul networks as these were largely complementary. It would also have

3326:

BCal's acquisition of a fifth 747 the following year permitted the launch of a new route from Gatwick to Tokyo on 31 May 1987, at a frequency of three return flights per week. In addition, for the first time in five years, two new European routes were launched from Gatwick. These served Milan Linate

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described as suggesting "that the slim down was overdue" It also needed to make adjustments to its schedule to take account of the expected changes in traffic patterns. This led to an immediate reduction in the number of weekly frequencies on BCal's underperforming Saudi Arabian routes. The aircraft

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sporting the full BCal livery for the duration of the 1985 summer timetable period enabled the airline to increase capacity on the Gatwick—Brussels route by replacing smaller aircraft Connectair had used to operate that service under the British Caledonian Commuter scheme and to add more capacity on

2544:

The strategy sought to gain acceptance (among eligible BCal employees) by offering them a higher basic rate of pay and a greater personal involvement in the management's decision-making process in return for forgoing overtime pay and agreeing to new, more efficient working practices that resulted in

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did not generate sufficient traffic to be profitable on their own, even after a reduction in frequencies. Another negative consequence for BCal was that one of its eight McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 widebodied jets suddenly became surplus to its long-haul scheduled requirements, forcing the airline to

2317:

The launch of the two new routes coincided with the introduction of a dedicated business class cabin on all of BCal's short-haul flights to Europe, the first time the airline had offered two classes on its short-haul routes since its inception, with the exception of a brief period in the early 1970s

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or capacity dumping. Air fares were only approved if they reflected the actual cost of providing these services. Similarly, capacity increases were sanctioned on a reciprocal basis only. The reason for insisting on the inclusion of these provisions in the Bermuda II agreement was to prevent the much

1285:

For Gatwick-based BCal this meant that it did not have to face any competitor that was using Heathrow, a more accessible airport with a bigger catchment area and a far greater number of passengers connecting between flights, on any of the new routes it was planning to launch to the US. It also meant

1228:

and the reinstatement of scheduled services to Tunis. It also led to BCal's decision to replace the two daily Gatwick—Manchester round-trips BIA had operated with turboprops with a BCal One-Eleven service from the start of the 1976–77 winter timetable period. This equipment change was accompanied by

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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. It was no longer believed that competition was increasing the UK market share of the traffic. As a result, BA and

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The difficult operating environment at the time did not affect BA alone. In fact, the major scheduled airlines were all losing enormous 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

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was BCal's chief guest on board its inaugural Gatwick—JFK flight. (The flight diverted to Boston due to inclement weather in the New York area.) This occasion marked the first time that a British independent airline commenced non-stop transatlantic scheduled services on routes linking the UK and the

3705:

obtained the licences for the old BCal routes from Gatwick to Manchester and Aberdeen as well as from Gatwick to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Nice. The licence for BCal's Gatwick—Brussels route was transferred to Air Europe. The CAA also granted Air Europe permission to increase the frequency on its

3686:

Furthermore, both companies' combined turnover exceeded the minimum threshold that automatically triggers the referral of a proposed merger between two or more companies that conduct a significant part or all of their business in EU member states to the European competition authorities in Brussels.

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making use of unused licences to serve additional destinations in the region, which BCal had obtained during the early 1980s. There was also a plan to apply for traffic rights to serve other destinations in the Far East non-stop from Gatwick in competition with BA's existing services from Heathrow.

3389:

On 16 July 1987, Sir Adam Thomson and Lord King of Wartnaby, chairmen of British Caledonian Group and British Airways respectively, surprisingly announced at a press conference the intention of the latter to acquire the former in an agreed £237 million bid. They had agreed on this deal only the day

3377:

BCal had valuable traffic rights to operate scheduled services on a number of lucrative, long-haul routes to parts of the world that were not served by any other British airline at that time. It therefore became a desirable takeover target and a bidding war ensued between several potential suitors.

2914:

1985 was the year that broke all previous financial records at BCal. The pre-tax profit in the financial year to 31 October 1985 reached an all-time high of £21.4 million. The retained group profit for that period was £11.3 million. The profit attributable to BCal's airline operation represented an

2816:

1984 was a record year for BCal. It ended the financial year to 31 October 1984 with a pre-tax profit of £17.1 million, which surpassed the record financial performance of 1978. This translated into a £10.9 million retained profit at group level. These profits were the result of improvements in the

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and Harare as well as its Caribbean and Iberian peninsula routes to BCal. The CAA also recommended removing all capacity restrictions on BCal's existing short-haul European routes. It furthermore advocated increasing the opportunities for designating BCal as the second UK flag carrier on additional

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to enable it to prosper in the post-BA privatisation environment. BCal was furthermore of the opinion that this would allow it to increase its scheduled capacity to about 20% of all UK scheduled airline capacity while permitting BA to continue in its role as the dominant UK scheduled carrier, which

2188:(BUA), an exclusive north–south airline, it became a predominantly north–south orientated carrier as well. The predominant north–south route structure had been further reinforced by the 1976 "spheres of influence" policy, which had locked the airline's long-haul operation into two continents — 2164:

as it felt that there was no realistic chance of obtaining reciprocal approval for the proposed service from the relevant Australian authorities, as long as there was no desire on their part to license a second Australian carrier as well. It did promise to look favourably on the application if BCal

1478:

At the start of that year's summer timetable period, flight frequencies on BCal's Gatwick—Glasgow and Gatwick—Amsterdam routes increased to five round-trips per day on week days. During that period, the airline also resumed its Edinburgh—Newcastle—Copenhagen service, which it had abandoned in 1974.

1439:

By 1978, BCal had fully recovered from the 1974 crisis year, which had threatened its very existence at that time. After the severe contraction forced upon it by the early 1970s' oil crisis, the company's core scheduled operation was growing again with new widebodied aircraft and routes being added

1278:

During the Bermuda II negotiations, the UK side succeeded in having inserted into the new air services agreement a clause stating that Gatwick — rather than Heathrow — was to be nominated as the designated US flag carrier's London gateway airport whenever BCal was going to be the sole designated UK

459:

BCal was a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonian Airways Ltd. 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

3414:

To enhance its credibility as a serious contender, Air Europe's bid contained a detailed proposal to return BCal to profitability by way of a reorganisation. This proposal had been prepared by a retired BA head of route planning whom ILG had specifically hired for this purpose. BCal would be split

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London orbital motorway, thereby denying the airline's passengers easy access to connecting flights from Heathrow and depriving passengers travelling with airlines based at that airport of the opportunity to avail themselves of convenient onward connections from Gatwick. The resulting reduction in

3161:

BCal had high hopes for 1986. It expected to make record profits representing a substantial improvement on the previous year's pre-tax profits of £21.4 million. The British Caledonian Group expected its turnover to exceed half-a-billion pounds while BCal expected to carry just under two-and-a-half

3029:

The collapse of the oil price during the mid-1980s had serious repercussions for BCal's revenue and profit projections as this impacted the oil-related business routes on which the airline had depended for most of its profits since the late 1970s. All of these routes carried fewer premium business

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and to acquire another second-hand One-Eleven 500, giving it a total fleet strength of 13. Standardizing its short-haul, narrow-bodied fleet on the same aircraft sub-type enhanced its ability to interchange aircraft across that fleet. As part of a "mid-life update", of its entire One-Eleven fleet,

1300:

BCal resumed scheduled transatlantic services on 24 October 1977. The airline became the first UK carrier to launch a daily, non-stop London (Gatwick)—Houston scheduled service as well as a weekly, direct all-cargo service on the same route, which operated via Prestwick on the outbound leg and via

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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

957:

flight numbers and continued to prefix flight numbers allocated to transatlantic charter flights until 31 March 1973 – with the BR airline designator it had inherited from BUA at the time of its formation. This resulted in exclusive use of the BR designator as a prefix for all BCal flight numbers.

625:

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

621:

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. The combined airline carried a total of 2.6

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responsibilities of the British Caledonian Group's board towards their shareholders meant that the only option left was to recommend the acceptance of the BA bid. 3i and the other shareholders decided to sell their stakes in British Caledonian Group plc to British Airways relinquishing control of

3466:

and ILG's successful referral of the original BA-BCal merger proposal to the MMC resulted in BA tabling a revised bid to take over BCal. The fall in BA's stock value left BA's original offer worth £156.7 million and a condition of MMC approval was that BCal had to give up some routes reducing its

3348:

BCal's future prospects as a stand-alone, medium-sized airline operating a variety of short-, medium- and long-haul scheduled services were rapidly diminishing against a background of looming consolidation in the airline industry. This was driven by the giant US carriers that had begun channeling

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nuclear catastrophe while conducting their business or spending their holidays in Europe. At the time, BCal's transatlantic scheduled services accounted for a quarter of the airline's worldwide revenues and 37% of its passenger traffic. The Libyan bombings also dashed any hopes BCal had to resume

2918:

The limited route transfer on which BCal had agreed with BA and the Government took effect at the start of the 1985 summer timetable period, when BCal commenced scheduled operations from Gatwick to Dhahran and Jeddah, replacing the BA service from Heathrow. At the same time, BCal relinquished its

2540:

record, claiming it never lost a full day's operation as a result of industrial action began implementing a new co-operative, industrial relations strategy. The airline termed its new industrial relations strategy "The Way Ahead". This strategy was designed to make the airline the most productive

2313:

enabled BCal to commence double daily flights to Frankfurt and 10 services a week to Geneva within a relatively short time span following the award of the licences. This was the first time since 1974 that BCal was able to launch new routes from Gatwick to Europe. These were BCal's first scheduled

2257:

However, Hong Kong's Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) unexpectedly refused to endorse BCal because many influential people in the Crown Colony felt very upset that Cathay Pacific was going to be excluded from one of the world's most lucrative air routes. This caused a minor diplomatic row

1348:

during the early summer of 1976, BCal chose the DC-10 as the wide-bodied aircraft best suited to serve its expanding long-haul route network. The immediate availability of the aircraft was important so there was no British-engine option, the 747 too large and the Tristar could not be delivered in

3659:

its member states' air transport markets. BA furthermore argued that this would call into question BCal's international traffic rights as most bilateral air services agreements contained a clause demanding airlines to be substantially owned and controlled by interests based in the countries they

3522:

headed by Jan Carlzon to the UK to work out details of a joint bid. This envisaged setting up an employee trust fund that would hold the same percentage of British Caledonian Group stock on behalf of the group's employees as SAS itself was seeking to acquire, so as to be compliant with any rules

3501:

BCal maintained that it had held several rounds of exploratory talks concerning the airline's potential takeover with a number of US carriers that were willing to pay a substantial premium over BA's original bid to acquire BCal. These talks had come to nothing because the US carriers feared that

2671:

BCal's senior management told the Government that the only alternatives to this proposal were shifting its existing scheduled operation from Gatwick to Heathrow's then new Terminal 4, which it expected to produce an additional annual profit of at least £20 million in the first year itself, or to

2464:

had also offered the airline a generous discount to sign up as a launch customer. Having BCal launch a brand-new narrow-bodied aircraft, gave the manufacturer added credibility in its global sales campaigns. This was of particular importance in the all-important US market, which Airbus needed to

1665:

Another important reason for BCal's decision to set up a Concorde task force was that the 1976 aviation policy review had exempted Concorde from the "spheres of influence" policy and therefore it was possible for BA to operate supersonic services to prime business and leisure destinations within

1534:

The year before, the Government had announced its intention to take pro-active steps to help ensure Gatwick's development as a genuine alternative to Heathrow. It was hoped that this in turn would assist BCal's development as a serious alternative to BA and the other major, established scheduled

1530:

had just completed the first phase of a major refurbishment and extension of BCal's Gatwick base. The centrepiece of this revamp was a completely refurbished centre pier featuring 11 telescopic, widebody-compatible loading bridges. These were the first loading bridges to be installed at Gatwick,

551:

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,

2712:

market by reducing BA's share. Measured in terms of capacity tonne kilometres (CTKs), it would have increased the independents' share from 17% to 40% while reducing BA's share from 83% to 60%. For BCal alone this would have doubled its share from 15% to 30%. In their submission the independents

1614:

from Heathrow to Gatwick by 1 April 1979, banning whole-plane charters at Heathrow and to compel all airlines that were planning to operate a scheduled service to or from London for the first time to use Gatwick instead of Heathrow. The latter policy was officially known as the "London Traffic

716:

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

4751:

which the flight's commander interpreted as engine failure requiring an immediate rejection of takeoff. The flight deck crew's decision to abandon their takeoff was delayed and as a result, the aircraft did not stop on the runway but, after crossing some rough ground, finally came to rest in a

3694:

In addition to the conditions imposed by the MMC, BA agreed further concessions with the EC's Competition Directorate to prevent BA from abusing its dominant position at both of London's main airports. These included limiting BA's presence at Gatwick to a maximum of 25% of all available slots,

3242:

What was already a bad situation for the airline was made worse by the continuing decline of the oil price, which had started the year before. The rapid fall in the oil price reduced the oil industry's spending power, thereby significantly reducing the number of oil-related business passengers

2780:

The limited route transfer on which the Government had decided was far less ambitious than either BCal's own proposals or the CAA's recommendations and would still leave it far smaller than BA and the giant US carriers. Although this was less than it had bargained for, BCal's senior management

1714:

widebodied aircraft during the first and third quarter. This permitted the aircraft's introduction on its daily Gatwick—Houston schedule as well as the replacement of the remaining 707-operated services on its mid- and South Atlantic routes. The narrow-bodied capacity released was used to add

1499:

port city of Benghazi to the existing five weekly services to Tripoli meant that for the first time BCal was able to offer its passengers daily flights to Libya, an important market for profitable, oil-related business travel. BCal's introduction of a 747 on the daily Gatwick—Houston schedule

1057:

These circumstances forced BCal to put in place a major programme of retrenchment, known internally as Plan "S" (from "survival") Plan "S" began to be implemented from 1 November 1974. It resulted in route cut-backs — including the suspension of the transatlantic "flagship" services, of which

3261:

the number of passengers changing flights at BCal's Gatwick base had a detrimental effect on load factors on the airline's profitable long-haul routes. This in turn reduced the profitability of these routes, as well as the airline's overall profitability by an estimated £2 million per annum.

1062:

said the fuel crisis was a "heaven-sent excuse" to back out of a failure. the immediate withdrawal and subsequent disposal of the remaining VC10 long-haul aircraft, the grounding of a number of short-haul aircraft as well 827 redundancies out of the company's 5,673 staff. It also resulted in

751:

In addition, BCal became the Government's "chosen instrument of the private sector". 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

518:(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 3297:

The airline embarked upon a major asset disposal programme to compensate for this significant revenue loss and to have sufficient funds to keep the business running. These asset disposals included the profitable sale of two, relatively young McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 widebodied aircraft to

1448:

BCal also became a "scheduled service only" airline during 1978, implementing a decision taken the year before when the share of passengers travelling on charter flights had declined to just 15% of all passengers carried. There were two reasons for BCal's withdrawal from the charter market:

3663:

In the event, the British Caledonian Group's controlling shareholder 3i decided to accept BA's final £250 million offer which it presented on 21 December 1987 with the proviso that it needed to be accepted or rejected that day. As the uncertainty surrounding BCal's future led to a further,

3030:

travellers than anticipated. This in turn led to a sharp decline of those routes' profitability and, hence, their contribution to the airline's overall profitability. In the case of the newly acquired Saudi Arabian routes this meant that they delivered less than half the projected profits.

2541:

among its peers in Europe by redefining established working practices. Its aim was to achieve a significant reduction in labour costs through increased productivity, thereby putting the firm ahead of its rivals. It was hoped that this would ultimately translate into higher profits as well.

1669:

The most obvious choice for a supersonic service was Gatwick—Lagos, the backbone and main money spinner of BCal's scheduled operation. BCal's Concorde task force's brief was to assess the viability of a second daily all-premium supersonic service complementing the airline's existing daily

2277:

With the competition from Cathay Pacific, BCal decided to operate only four weekly round-trips instead of a daily service they had originally planned. Cathay Pacific commenced a thrice-weekly service between Hong Kong and Gatwick via Bahrain on 17 July 1980 ahead of BCal, which began its

1727:

to the mid-Atlantic schedule. The company furthermore increased frequencies on its short-haul routes. A fourth daily round-trip was added to both Gatwick—Manchester and Gatwick—Brussels. A third daily frequency operating on week days was added to the Newcastle—Amsterdam sector of BCal's

1075:, purchase and sale activities to a new subsidiary. British Caledonian Aircraft Trading was the name of the company that succeeded Caledonian Airways Equipment Holdings, Caledonian Airways (Leasing) and other related interests. It became one of the most profitable parts of the business. 3120:

at a later stage to enable the joint venture to acquire sufficient economies of scale to become a viable entity in the long term. However, it recognised that it might be difficult to implement the last stage of the envisaged expansion as the relevant routes had already been licensed to

661:

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-CLAN and G-SCOT were the registrations of the

3497:

Parallel talks with British Midland, which wanted to transfer all of BCal's scheduled services from Gatwick to Heathrow, ended without result at an early stage because BCal's senior management felt that this was not feasible given the tight slot situation at London's premier airport.

3238:

The third had a serious impact on BCal's finances at a time of crisis as it denied the airline speedy access to a substantial amount of money derived from passenger and cargo sales in its most important and most profitable overseas market. This resulted in a significant revenue loss.

387:

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,

3680:

requiring it to surrender to the CAA several of BCal's licences to operate scheduled services from Gatwick on a number of important, short-haul feeder routes. Although BA had been permitted to re-apply for these licences, the CAA decided to re-allocate all of them to rival airlines.

1430:

from Aer Lingus, and the use of BA flightdeck crews to operate the aircraft. The aircraft, which wore a slightly modified BCal livery, was operating the Gatwick—Houston schedule during the 1978/79 winter timetable period to cover for the late delivery of the airline's third DC-10.

1978:, while at the same time reducing overall demand for its flights. BCal therefore decided to reduce off-peak frequencies on most of its short-haul routes from the start of the 1980/81 winter timetable period. This also included combining week-end, off-peak flights from Gatwick to 3554:

SAS faced a barrage of hostile propaganda and delaying tactics from BA that were designed to stall any third party's competing bid to acquire BCal for as long as possible and got a mixed response to its planned counter bid for BCal from various departments of the UK Government.

2663:. BCal estimated that it would require nine more aircraft — six long-haul and three short-haul planes — to operate the additional routes. It also reckoned that this would allow it to grow to the minimum size that was required to turn its Gatwick base into an efficient 1444:

decided to allocate £644,000 of the retained profit to a new profit-share scheme to reward its staff for their hard work, and as an incentive for the future. BCal's profit-share scheme, which began the following year, was one of the first of its kind in the UK airline industry.

3650:

of a significant part of Britain's privatised air transport industry and contrasted this with its own, recent privatisation. In this context, BA highlighted that two of these governments represented countries — Norway and Sweden — that were not even members of the

3436:

This combination of more non-stop flights and higher frequencies to prime long-haul destinations would have resulted in a more attractive product for high-yield business travellers, thereby enabling the revamped BCal to become profitable again within a short period of time.

3398:

Following Sir Adam's outright rejection of ILG chairman Harry Goodman's offer to purchase BCal's short-haul operation, and to merge that operation with the short-haul operations of ILG subsidiary Air Europe in return for not having the proposed BA-BCal deal referred to the

1603:(SAS) had an effective monopoly on most routes between the UK and Scandinavia. The UK Government agreed to assist BCal in securing reciprocal traffic rights for the London—Scandinavia licences during its negotiations on a new bilateral air services agreement with its three 3222:, Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, New York JFK and Los Angeles because of a sudden surge in cancellations, especially from passengers based in the US. Many of BCal's American passengers cancelled or postponed their trips at that time because they feared retaliatory attacks by 3037:

BCal's 18% share was still far less than the minimum size BCal needed to acquire the economies of scale to compete with BA and the giant US carriers on a level playing field. This was also less than what had been envisaged in the Edwards report prior to BCal's formation.

2523:

During the early 1980s, BCal and its affiliated companies adopted a new organisational structure to reflect the growth in the group's business and the diversification into new activities. Caledonian Aviation Group (renamed British Caledonian Group in 1986) became the new

5057:£35 million for losses related to the US military action in Libya and the Ukrainian nuclear catastrophe, another £35 million related to the devaluation of the Nigerian currency and £10 million for the voluntary severance programme to achieve a reduction in the head count 3338:

The proceeds from the sale of two DC-10s to Continental Airlines was all that was left to keep the airline in business. Senior management realised that the company was unlikely to survive on its own and that it needed to act fast if it wanted to avoid BCal's collapse.

9308:

III. 1984: Opposition to route transfer — (2) Controversy over route transfer, Privatisation of British Airways: Its Management and Politics 1982–1987 (Kyohei Shibata, EUI Working Paper EPU No.93/9, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 1994), Footnote

1371:

The aircraft, which was configured in a 265-seat, two-class layout, entered commercial service on BCal's busy West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana later the same month, replacing the airline's Boeing 707s on six of the seven weekly services on these routes.

3539:, proposed this to be structured as a so-called "exploding share". This would have enabled SAS to increase its holding in British Caledonian Group plc to a maximum of 40% through subsequent acquisition of additional non-voting shares. These in turn would have become 2703:

members opposed transferring any of these assets to BCal. Lord King also left the Government in no doubt that it would find itself in the embarrassing situation of having to dismiss the entire board if it imposed a route transfer to BCal against the BA board's will.

2473:) of countries, whose aerospace industries benefitted from orders, as launch customers. Therefore, having a successful wholly independent airline with a major, worldwide scheduled presence like BCal order a brand-new, technologically advanced aircraft came in handy. 2707:

In June 1984, BCal's original proposal to share out BA's routes ahead of the latter's privatisation was followed up by a plan BCal had jointly formulated with eight other UK independent airlines. This plan sought to give the independents a greater share of the UK's

2203:

realised that it needed to develop the traffic flows across its network in an east–west direction to increase the network's reach and to enable its passengers to make omnidirectional flight connections. This was also essential to enable the airline to increase its

2532:

of £20 million in June 1987. Apart from the airline, subsidiaries included British Caledonian Aircraft Trading, British Caledonian Flight Training, British Caledonian Helicopters, Caledonian Airmotive, Caledonian Hotel Holdings and Caledonian Leisure Holdings.

4724:(registration: G-ARTA) sustained severe structural damage to the fuselage as a result of an exceptionally hard landing at Gatwick at the end of a short ferry flight from Heathrow. The airline decided that repairs were not cost-effective and the aircraft was 1212:

The Government's new "spheres of influence" aviation policy confined BCal's long-haul scheduled operations to two continents — Africa and South America. The loss of BCal's East African routes enabled the airline to replace the one-stop scheduled service via

3706:

existing route between Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle, where it had already competed with BCal, so that it could match Dan-Air's frequency. Both Air Europe and Connectair were successful in their applications for BCal's unused European route licences.

1494:

joined the network. At that time, the airline also increased frequencies between London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle to seven daily round-trips on week days, with flights operating at two-hourly intervals. The addition of twice-weekly flights to the

2211:

BCal's new Gatwick—Dubai—Hong Kong route was intended to be just the first step in this expansion to the East. The Hong Kong route had come about as a result of the UK government decision in 1979 to open up the lucrative route between London and the

2716:

The opposing views of Britain's leading independent airlines on one hand and BA on the other regarding the future shape of the British air transport industry led to a review of the Government's airline competition policy by the CAA. The result was

2985:(JFK) during the summer of 1985, after the airline's absence from that route for over a decade. BCal's 1985 re-launch of scheduled Gatwick—JFK services coincided with the introduction of its door-to-door limousine service for premium travellers. 614:. (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 3055:

As a consequence of its main shareholder's dissatisfaction, the British Caledonian Group's board of directors established contact with ILG's board in November 1985. The purpose of this meeting was to begin exploring ways of combining BCal's and

1301:

Manchester on the return leg. BCal inaugurated the daily scheduled passenger flights with a Boeing 707-320C narrow-bodied aircraft. In April 1978, BCal re-configured the 707s plying this route in a three-class layout, which featured a dedicated

1315:

that a scheduled airline had offered a "third" class specifically aimed at the business traveller. It was intended to replace the 707s operating the all-passenger services with a brand-new, larger capacity as well as more fuel-efficient DC-10

4689:. This resulted in the aircraft being thrown up on to its side at a greater-than-90-degree angle, and then tossed, headlong, nose down, towards the up to 27,000 ft (8,200 m) high peaks just a few thousand feet (several hundred 2647:. Moreover, BCal wanted the Government to pursue additional opportunities for dual designation in its negotiations of existing and new bilateral air services agreements with foreign governments on its behalf — in particular, to the 2436:

Despite being a difficult year for BCal, it managed to stay in the black during that period. The airline made a pre-tax profit of £1.1 million, which translated into a £300,000 retained profit, in the financial year to 31 October 1982.

1172:

As a result of the "success" of Plan "S", BCal's fortunes quickly recovered. The airline operation itself made a small profit of £250,000 during the financial year ended 30 September 1975 after having lost £4.3 million the year before.

3758:

Tristar widebodied aircraft at Gatwick, which were used to operate the former BCal West African coastal schedule as well as a number of new routes to North Africa and the Middle East that had been transferred to Gatwick from Heathrow.

1512:

with 707s. The 707's greater range enabled it to cut out intermediate stops and offer its passengers a more convenient, direct routeing that took less time. BCal replaced two-class One-Elevens operating on the Tripoli route with 707s.

1413:

Although the introduction of the DC-10 resulted in a huge increase in BCal's long-haul passenger and cargo capacity, the actual loads exceeded the airline's forecasts and helped it grow its traffic volumes on its scheduled services to

1078:

In addition to withdrawing from the prestigious long-haul routes to New York and Los Angeles after only 18 months, other specific measures the airline took at the time to ensure its survival included dropping all scheduled flights to

921:"jumbo jet". It was thought that the aircraft's widebody style interiors would leave passengers with the impression that BCal was operating widebodied aircraft when in fact it was not. During that time, BCal placed an order with the 383:

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.

2676:

with BA. BCal's senior management also told the Government that its preferred option was to remain at Gatwick and to strengthen its position there through the proposed route transfers to enable BCal to turn it into an efficient

2745:

would have resulted in strengthening BCal's position at Gatwick by making it the sole UK scheduled airline on all trunk routes from that airport while maintaining BA's status as the dominant UK scheduled carrier at Heathrow.

1666:

BCal's sphere of influence, such as Lagos or Rio de Janeiro for example. To ward off this potential threat, BCal's senior management decided to develop its own Concorde plans, either independently or in partnership with BA.

1286:

that it had any new route to the US completely to itself for the first three years of operation, which most airline industry analysts reckon is sufficiently long for a brand-new scheduled air service to become profitable.

1946:

area close to the airline's Gatwick base. It was the first purpose-built headquarters in the company's history, which was designed to accommodate all 1,100 office-based staff at the airline's Gatwick base under one roof.

717:

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—

2258:

between the UK government and the colonial administration in Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific immediately began a back-door lobbying campaign in the Crown Colony as well as in London, stressing that it had invested millions of

2639:, which it wanted to serve from Gatwick, and the removal of capacity restrictions on its existing short-haul European routes from Gatwick. The airline furthermore proposed to take over BA's services from Gatwick to the 1279:

flag carrier on the same route. This clause was meant to support the growth of BCal's scheduled operation at Gatwick as well as to redress the competitive imbalance between it and its much bigger, more powerful rivals.

3523:

limiting the stakes foreign individuals or entities could own in a British airline. They were prepared to extend a loan to the trustees of the envisaged employee trust fund to enable them to acquire an equal number of

3033:

The limited route transfer had allowed BCal to grow its scheduled capacity to about 18% of all UK scheduled airline capacity, while BA only suffered an insignificant reduction in its share of total scheduled capacity.

1570:

on its long-haul flights to Africa, South America and the US as well as to improve the profitability of these services. The airline had planned to commence new short-haul scheduled services from Gatwick to Copenhagen,

908:

aircraft procured on a long-term lease from Britannia Airways featuring a two-class, "widebody look" interior. Another three 707s received re-modelled "widebody" cabins. All five were used to inaugurate the airline's

3570:

SAS thought that BCal's Gatwick base would give it access to a centrally located hub in the world's biggest international air travel market, thereby helping it to overcome its geographic isolation on the margins of

2241:

BCal had proposed running a conventional scheduled service from Gatwick to Hong Kong via Dubai utilising its rapidly growing fleet of McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 widebodies in a three-class configuration featuring a

2103:

types were rejected because it was felt that they had insufficient range to permit non-stop flights from BCal's Gatwick base to some of the more distant points BCal already served or planned to serve in Europe and

1782:. These services were to be operated during off-peak times, initially using the airline's existing narrowbody aircraft. Only six of 22 licences applied for were granted but even those did not lead to routes as the 2729:

also contained a number of recommendations that were designed to ensure that a competitive balance between BCal and the UK's other independent airlines on one hand and a privatised BA on the other was maintained.

644:

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

11868: 4987:

a single crew member used to look after the passengers on the 25-minute flight, which subsequently halved to 12 minutes as a result of reducing the separation with other air traffic along the route taken by the

2286:

Following BA's decision to abandon the short-haul routes it had been operating from London Gatwick at low frequencies since 1978 and to surrender a number of unused licences to the CAA, BCal, Laker Airways and

9360:

III. 1984: Opposition to route transfer, Privatisation of British Airways: Its Management and Politics 1982–1987 (Kyohei Shibata, EUI Working Paper EPU No.93/9, European University Institute, Florence, Italy,

3633:

home markets. BA argued that the SAS bid for BCal would lead to higher fares and thus would not benefit British consumers. In addition, BA also argued that BCal's takeover by SAS, in which the governments of

3587:

To counter SAS proposals, BA made an alternative cash offer of £200 million for all of BCal's stock (equivalent to 972 pence per share) while also leaving the alternative of 80 million BA shares still open.

2817:

British economy, which had recovered from the severe recession of the early 1980s, and BCal beginning to reap the benefits of the new industrial relations strategy it had begun implementing the year before.

3562:

to participate in its merger with BCal by merging its scheduled services division with the new airline combine's scheduled operation, thereby strengthening its position at Gatwick and the airport as a hub.

2753:, the Government decided not to accept the CAA's recommendations in full. Instead, it settled on a limited route transfer from BA to BCal. This entailed transferring BA's profitable Saudi Arabian routes to 5082:

through each government's 50% ownership of its respective national carrier, each of which held the actual traffic rights that formed the legal basis of SAS's domestic, regional and international operations

3879:. Closer links with BCal, followed by Genair's participation in the British Caledonian Commuter scheme and its subsequent relocation to Humberside in late 1982, resulted in acquisition of a small fleet of 3152:

Despite several rounds of talks being held that lasted well into the first half of 1986, both sides eventually decided not to proceed further with their joint venture study and to go their separate ways.

2271: 11856: 1827:

on short-term lease between Gatwick and Tripoli while the 707s normally used on that service were redeployed to operate a reduced schedule to Houston and South America. In addition to these aircraft, a

3374:

BCal's precarious financial position made it obvious for most of its rivals and seasoned industry observers that the ailing airline lacked the financial strength to survive on its own for much longer.

3021:

The Government decided to meet BCal's request for a ban on all charter flights from Gatwick half-way by agreeing to give preference to scheduled services in all future slot allocations at the airport.

4661:

BCal had an enviable safety record during its 17-year existence. Its aircraft were never involved in fatal accidents. There were a few noteworthy non-fatal incidents involving the airline's aircraft.

3672:

Following BA's successful takeover of BCal, SAS had a giant hoarding erected at the entrance to Heathrow's central area featuring an advertisement that ended with BCal's famous 1980s marketing slogan

2769:. The Government thought that this would strengthen BCal by making it the sole UK flag carrier to all of Saudi Arabia and that it would tie in well with BCal's "linking the oil capitals of the world" 763:, 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. 3490:

base between that airline's long-haul services and BCal's short-haul feeder flights from/to London Gatwick. However, at the time the French authorities were thought to disapprove of establishing an

3210:

on BCal's earnings from passenger and freight bookings originating in Nigeria and paid for in the local currency, which the Nigerian government of the day prevented from being repatriated to the UK.

1715:

frequencies on existing routes as well as to launch services to new medium- and long-haul destinations. As a result, BCal launched a fourth weekly service to Brazil. It also launched a new route to

3683:

BA also needed to withdraw the objections to Air Europe's application to the CAA for licences to launch new scheduled services on several short-haul routes BCal already used to serve from Gatwick.

3591:

Faced with the prospect of its takeover target being snatched away from under its nose by SAS, British Airways initially began resorting to bullying tactics. In this it had the implicit backing of

4929:

the new mid-day service was initially operated by BIA Heralds under contract to BCal; BCal took over the operation of this service on 1 January 1977, giving a three-times-daily One-Eleven schedule

1804:-Scandinavian bilateral air services agreement and the temporary grounding of the airline's widebodied fleet — three McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s — during the second quarter following the crash of 1786:

would not start discussions with the European authorities, which they believed would be blocked due to the destination countries' domestic concerns. None of Laker's 36 applications were approved.

1607:

counterparts in December 1978. It was hoped that this would enable BCal to commence its first-ever scheduled services from London to Scandinavia at the start of the 1979 summer timetable period.

1297:

Both sides also agreed to continue dual designation on the London—New York and London—Los Angeles routes. The principle of dual designation was to be extended to another two high-volume routes.

3367:

It had become a mid-sized airline that was too big to be a specialist, niche operator. Yet it was too small to effectively compete with BA and the US giants in terms of economies of scale and

2453:

and took an option on another three, with deliveries of the aircraft on firm order due to commence during the spring of 1988. The options were subsequently converted into firm orders as well.

3284:

As a result of the problems it was facing during that time, BCal announced 1,000 job losses out of a total worldwide workforce of 7,700 which given there was no overall reduction in services

2479:

1983 turned out to be another tough year for BCal. Continuing restrictions on the airline's South American services and other schedule cutbacks in response to the early 80s recession reduced

5148:

some of these aircraft had originally been operated by British Airtours in a high-density, single-class configuration and had subsequently been re-fitted with a two-class, scheduled interior

1919:(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 375:(BUA). 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 4756:. None of the six crew members and 79 passengers was seriously injured in the crash, but an elderly female passenger collapsed after being helped from the aircraft and subsequently died of 3173:" during which it faced its most acute crisis as a result of events beyond its control. The airline was never going to recover from this crisis, which ultimately sealed the company's fate. 4709:, a thorough ground check was performed before the aircraft was allowed to resume its flight to Gatwick. A detailed inspection of the aircraft at Gatwick revealed a fracture in one of the 1383:. The aircraft was re-configured in the airline's contemporary, 265-seat, two-class scheduled layout at the end of the summer period. It replaced Boeing 707s on two of BCal's three weekly 677:

The "Second Force" inherited BUA's extensive network of scheduled routes serving the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa and South America. Its scheduled ambitions were aided by the

3796:

BA transferred all of its international operations from Gatwick — including those it had inherited from BCal — to the then brand-new North Terminal, which opened in March 1988.

1267:

confirmed and was designated as the UK's exclusive flag carrier on both routes. It also obtained a licence and sole UK flag carrier status to commence scheduled services from Gatwick to

3803:

designed livery. BA operated its first commercial A320 service between London Gatwick and Geneva before transferring the entire A320 fleet to its main base at Heathrow later that year.

2216:

of Hong Kong to additional competition. This was to be provided by a second British scheduled carrier to ease the shortage of capacity passengers were experiencing at peak times on the

1271:. In addition, BCal obtained a licence and sole UK flag carrier status to commence scheduled all cargo flights between Gatwick and Houston — including an optional stop at Manchester or 11445: 3302:, the sale and lease-back of the entire 13-strong, short-haul BAC One-Eleven fleet, the sale of six of Caledonian Hotel Holdings' hotels, the sale of Caledonian Airmotive to US-based 3176:

The events that brought about a dramatic turn-around in BCal's fortunes plunging it into a £19.3 million pre-tax loss (translated into a £14.4 million retained group loss). included

1005:

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.

3765:

BA transferred the former BCal routes to Tokyo and Saudi Arabia to Heathrow. To compensate for this loss and to utilise its full slot allocation at Gatwick, BA moved its routes to

1375:

The second aircraft, which arrived at Gatwick in early May of that year, was initially configured in a 295-seat, single-class layout. It entered service later that month on BCal's

5175:

the domestic services BA had inherited from BCal at Gatwick continued using the South Terminal as the North Terminal lacked the facilities to handle domestic flights in those days

1107:

route as well as cutting the number of frequencies on the Gatwick—Glasgow and Gatwick—Edinburgh routes from six to four daily round trips. Two surplus aircraft were leased out to

2575:

To redress this competitive imbalance, BCal proposed to the Government the transfer of several of BA's most lucrative long-haul routes to itself — including BA's profitable

748:, 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.) 3446:

BCal's senior management rejected ILG's bid. They felt that both airlines' nature of operations and their business strategies were incompatible and that therefore there were no

2915:

improvement of almost £12 million compared with the previous year's results. During that year, BCal carried 8% more passengers and 20% more cargo compared with the year before.

552:

throughout its 17-year existence.) The newly created company's output measured in available capacity tonne kilometres was greater than that of some of the smaller, contemporary

736:

routes. (BUA, from whom BCal inherited these routes, had been prevented from offering a first class on its East African routes. To compensate for this loss of competitiveness,

3411:

ILG had decided to make a counter bid, which it hoped would either kill off BA's proposal to take over BCal lock, stock and barrel or result in it being referred to the MMC.

1475:

1978 was also the first year BCal operated the majority of its scheduled services plying the prime long-haul routes to West Africa and South America with widebody equipment.

1610:

Government initiatives in support of Gatwick's development also included new policies to transfer all scheduled services between London and Canada as well as London and the

590:

that had helped Sir Adam Thomson and John de la Haye launch Caledonian Airways back in 1961 were also among the shareholders of the newly constituted airline. They included

3966:

licence to the latter following numerous passenger complaints about the service Air UK had previously provided since it had assumed the former BIA operation on that route.

3349:

their traffic flows into powerful hub-and-spoke operations, rather than feeding these into the networks of BCal and other international partner airlines, in the wake of US

1364:

On 13 March 1977, the first of the two DC-10s ordered arrived at the airline's Gatwick base from Prestwick at the end of a delivery flight from the manufacturer's plant in

1583:

during summer 1978, using the licences the CAA had awarded it the year before. However, BCal was unable to use its newly awarded licences as there was no provision in the

3762:

The only former BCal aircraft BA kept for its Gatwick operation were eight McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s that had formed BA's erstwhile competitor's core long-haul fleet.

2108:. Moreover, BCal felt that operating a turboprop on trunk routes would meet with passenger resistance as by that time most people had become accustomed to travelling on 1648:

The service gave BCal's passengers easier access to flight connections at Heathrow, especially to destinations not served by scheduled flights from Gatwick at the time.

1289:

At British insistence, Bermuda II furthermore contained clauses that made it illegal for any airline operating scheduled flights between the UK and the US to resort to

1630:

shuttle service linking both of London's main airports. The new helicopter shuttle service linking London Heathrow and London Gatwick was inaugurated on 9 June 1978.

3247:

premium bookings, future revenue and profit projections needed to be revised as well to take account of much reduced demand for the company's most expensive tickets.

3072:

by filling seats that would otherwise remain empty with ILG's clients, especially on week-ends. A series of meetings ensued. The result was a 150-page study entitled

3486:

given UTA, an exclusively long-haul carrier at the time, access to BCal's short-haul network. This could have delivered additional passengers transferring at UTA's

2699:, infamously dismissed BCal's offer to purchase BA's assets for £200 million + as a "smash-and-grab raid". He made it clear to the Government that he and his fellow 1692:, thus permitting a cost-effective operation. Therefore, BCal decided to use the second aircraft to launch a supersonic service between Gatwick and Atlanta, with a 12400: 12277: 1399:, as well as on one of the company's two weekly mid-Atlantic schedules to Venezuela, Colombia and Peru from the beginning of the 1977/78 winter timetable period. 3718:, the former British Caledonian Charter operation, and British Caledonian Flight Training were not included in BA's acquisition of the British Caledonian Group. 2480: 2392: 1689: 9425: 1800:

BCal's setbacks during 1979 included continuing frustration of the airline's desire to launch scheduled services to Scandinavia despite the conclusion of a new

11540: 10837: 8988: 5494: 1357:

aircraft with an option on another two. To ensure an early delivery, the company took over a delivery slot for two aircraft that had originally been booked by

1245: 1190: 4717:, necessitating a lengthy repair. On an airliner with wing-mounted engines under the same circumstances, the engine mounting pins would probably have snapped. 900:

To support its ambitious expansion plans, BCal acquired a number of additional, second-hand Boeing 707s from various sources through its aircraft trading and

712:

in competition with BEA's service from Heathrow. Furthermore, the Government agreed to license BCal to operate non-stop scheduled services between London and

12539: 12470: 3618:

arguments to convince both the regulators and the shareholders of the British Caledonian Group that its revised offer was in their best, long-term interest.

2845:

was added to the network during 1984. At the start of the summer timetable period, frequencies to Frankfurt and Geneva increased to three daily round-trips.

2659:

at a later stage. BCal was prepared to pay BA between £200 million and £250 million for the routes to be transferred as well as for the associated staff and

794:

began in July 1971. On each of these routes BCal replaced BOAC as the designated UK flag carrier. On 1 November 1971, BCal started scheduled flights between

3799:

The A320s BCal had ordered in 1983 began arriving at BA's new Gatwick base during the spring of 1988. These aircraft had been painted in BA's contemporary

3371:. At the same time, it was unable to match the significantly lower costs of emerging, aggressively expanding Far East competitors, such as Cathay Pacific. 1034:

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

2738:

long-haul routes where BA was the only UK scheduled airline. This was to be achieved through appropriate amendments to the relevant bilateral agreements.

2274:, against the CAA's decision. Nott overturned the CAA's decision opening the route to all three without imposing any restrictions on service frequencies. 12440: 2552:

The successful implementation of the new industrial relations strategy in 1983 made BCal employees the highest paid airline staff in the UK at the time.

1766:

This was also the time BCal came up with a proposal to create a new network of European low-fare services. These were to be marketed under the trademark

1282:

The UK side furthermore succeeded in negotiating a three-year exclusivity period for the incumbent operator on any new route with their US counterparts.

11118: 1759:

During that year, BCal also established a wholly owned helicopter subsidiary and it placed the UK launch order for a brand-new widebodied aircraft, the

3439:

The short-haul operation was to have brand-new aircraft as well, which would have resulted in replacing BCal's ageing BAC One-Eleven 500s with the new

2135:), at a frequency of two flights a week each, in both directions. BCal proposed to inaugurate what would have been the first ever scheduled operation " 2115:

In 1981, BCal applied to the UK and Australian authorities for permission to launch a fully fledged, three-class scheduled service between Gatwick and

2031:

from seven to 10 weekly round-trips. It also permitted a frequency increase on the Gatwick—Dubai—Hong Kong route from four to five weekly round-trips.

966: 11873: 2483:. This led to a decision to fill spare long-haul aircraft capacity with third-party work. BCal's third-party business included a twice weekly Gatwick— 740:, BUA's managing director from 1960 to 1965, had come up with the idea of designing a cargo door to be installed on the left-hand side of the forward 12370: 1538:

BCal was keen to expand its limited short-haul European network beyond the existing four routes linking London Gatwick with Paris Charles de Gaulle,

10231: 1531:

which was a single-terminal airport at the time. For the first time in its history, BCal also gained a dedicated check-in area for all its flights.

3709:

BA continued serving the routes until the new licence holders were ready to assume operations at the start of the 1988/89 winter timetable period.

3309:

Despite facing a major crisis, BCal continued adding new aircraft, routes and flight frequencies in an effort to maintain a competitive operation.

3294:

Altogether BCal suffered a total revenue loss of £80 million while the airline itself lost two-and-a-half million pounds every month at that time.

3149:

plus previously retained earnings of 18.2%. This was substantially better than BCal's short-haul operation could have hoped to achieve on its own.

2314:

services to Germany and Switzerland, which were going to be important sources of feeder traffic for the airline's long-haul services from Gatwick.

897:

market, which still accounted for half of BCal's business, the airline incurred a loss of £194,000 during the financial year to 30 September 1972.

473: 2076: — acquired a new sense of urgency during 1981 against a backdrop of further escalating fuel prices. The airline was evaluating both the new 1142:

to serve the rapidly growing executive charter market. These changes left BCal with 25 operational aircraft for the 1975 summer season. To reduce

12514: 1645:, the wholly owned helicopter subsidiary of BA whose headquarters were located at Gatwick, provided the flightdeck crew and engineering support. 12490: 4770: 3357:. It also deprived the airline of the capacity to generate the funds to continue investing in fleet renewal, further network expansion and new 2398:

Laker Airways's collapse at the beginning of February of that year provided BCal with additional work to utilise its spare aircraft capacity.

2143:, one of Australia's two leading contemporary domestic airlines, and held out the prospect of placing an order for brand-new, higher capacity 491:

from the government The report recommended the creation of a "Second Force", private sector carrier to take on the state-owned corporations —

3812: 11861: 3345:

Several rounds of talks that were aimed at achieving a full-scale merger ensued with various airlines in the UK, the US, Canada and Europe.

12270: 2371: 1897:

widebodies at the end of October when St. Louis became a stop on the new Dallas/Fort Worth route. During that year, the company also added

728:

Another important concession by the Government designed to improve the competitiveness of the "Second Force" was to permit it to provide a

540:

was £12 million — more than that of any other wholly private, British independent airline at the time — and its workforce numbered 4,400.

9311: 1882: 1460:

low-fares, "no frills" scheduled operation between London Gatwick and New York JFK, which had begun in the previous year's autumn season.

3096:

in 1987. The next stage of development was to occur during the 1988/89 winter timetable period when further routes linking Gatwick with

11533: 2172:

BCal ended its 1980/81 financial year with a £6.2 million loss as a result of high fuel prices, a major recession on both sides of the

1256:

of 1977. This presented BCal with new transatlantic opportunities to begin scheduled services to additional gateway cities in the US.

1042:, the latter having provided work for three BCal short-haul aircraft prior to its collapse. There was also massive overcapacity on the 1599:

for another carrier to operate scheduled services on the main trunk routes between London and these countries. This meant that BA and

12125: 3475: 1916: 4867:

available for the carriage of revenue load (passengers, cargo and mail) on each flight sector by the sector's distance in kilometres

12524: 4706: 3312:

Two more 747s joined the fleet during 1986. This permitted a major capacity increase on the popular Gatwick—Dubai—Hong Kong route.

2139:" by a wholly private, British independent airline with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s. BCal wanted this to be a joint operation with 1889:

followed on 26 October. It also enabled the airline to replace the Boeing 707s, with which it had inaugurated another new route to

1467:

market where BCal used to supply whole-plane charter seats to its Blue Sky Holidays tour operator affiliate as well as third party

9363: 3235:

operations on its profitable Gatwick—Tripoli route later that year, resulting in a further loss of expected revenues and profits.

2476:

BCal intended to use its A320s to replace the ageing One-Elevens on its short-haul European and medium-haul North African routes.

12263: 4854:

the distance covered by its scheduled operation multiplied by the number of scheduled passengers carried within a 12-month period

1886: 1268: 515: 1923:

as the Hong Kong route was not otherwise expected to generate enough revenue for four carriers. For BCal this meant using their

810:

service. This was the first time since the 1930s that an independent airline commenced a scheduled service on that trunk route.

12286: 2456:

Although the A320 was bigger than BCal's actual requirement, it was the technologically most advanced contender with 27% lower

1934:

BCal's 10th anniversary on 30 November 1980 coincided with the completion of its new corporate headquarters — aptly named

1778:

operation. Excluding BCal's existing four European destinations, it envisaged linking Gatwick with 20 additional points on the

1622:

Another pro-active measure the Government took to aid BCal's and Gatwick's development at the time was to grant permission for

3551:

representing its staff at the British Caledonian Group's Crawley headquarters as well as with Government officials in London.

1927:

refuelling stop to carry passengers, cargo and mail between London and Dubai and Dubai and Hong Kong, despite objections from

1662:

viably on the airline's long-haul route network as there were still two unsold, "white tail" examples available at that time.

12519: 12244: 11526: 11407: 11388: 4102: 3859:, which had been formed as a Manchester-based executive charter airline in November 1980, commenced operations with a single 2962: 2027:

widebody in 1981. The delivery of this aircraft enabled the airline to increase frequencies on the prime long-haul routes to

1550:. The airline needed to develop its connecting traffic at Gatwick by growing the European network to include destinations in 1013:

The creation of British Airways (BA) as a result of the 1974 BEA-BOAC merger came against the background of the first global

3502:

there were insurmountable regulatory obstacles to such a cross-border acquisition in the highly regulated airline industry.

503:

and Sir Adam Thomson, one of the five co-founders as well as one of the main shareholders of Caledonian Airways, became its

11841: 11738: 11152: 496: 2342:

This British Caledonian Charter McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 at Gatwick in March 1984 was one of two acquired from bankrupt

12534: 11621: 11191:(VC10 – The story of a classic jet airliner: Disposal of British Caledonian VC10s), p. 60, Key Publishing, Stamford, 2015 11167:(VC10 – The story of a classic jet airliner: Disposal of British Caledonian VC10s), p. 59, Key Publishing, Stamford, 2015 10952:

Concorde: Supersonic Speedbird — the full story (Chapter 7: And a magnificent lady too ... Concorde pilot Barbara Harmer)

3822: 3200: 3181: 1641:. BCal held the licence to operate the service, provided the cabin crew and was in charge of reservations and ticketing. 2560:

In 1984, the UK Government began to prepare then wholly state-owned BA for privatisation in earnest by appointing a new

1688:. It became necessary to find additional work for BCal's envisaged two-strong Concorde fleet to increase the aircraft's 12348: 4681:

while operating the first sector of BCal's weekly Santiago–Gatwick schedule. While the aircraft was cruising above the

4094: 3273: 2024: 1856: 1844: 1711: 1354: 953:

US. Also on 1 April 1973, BCal replaced the two-letter CA airline designator – which was originally used to prefix all

11450: 10438: 5689: 2262:

in the British economy at a time of high unemployment in the UK by placing large orders for Rolls-Royce RB211-powered

12211: 12139: 11329: 11310: 11291: 11272: 11253: 6819: 3400: 2692: 2358:'s decision to close its airspace and airports to all UK-based airlines as well as to all UK-registered aircraft and 2306: 1697: 1584: 1252:

and initiated bilateral negotiations with his US counterparts on a new air services agreement, which resulted in the

945: 633:

During that period, former BUA air hostesses still wearing that airline's blue uniforms were working alongside their

434: 10829: 9761: 9422: 8981: 6266:"Gone but not forgotten ... BRITISH CALEDONIAN)", Vol 42, No 12, p. 42, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, December 2009 5491: 5039:(6.4 billion seat kilometres) per year by 1975 the minimum size for the "Second Force" to become economically viable 3427:

launched, Dubai was to be de-linked from the Hong Kong service and Hong Kong was to be served non-stop with the new

1704:. It also considered using the aircraft to serve Houston and points on its South American network at a later stage. 929:

and acquired additional second-hand examples. At the same time, the airline disposed of some of its 707s, VC10s and

11766: 7450: 2410: 2378:

and Buenos Aires. That conflict left the airline with an unprofitable rump network because the remaining routes to

1909: 1809: 1520: 1500:

furthermore enabled it to replace its two-class configured One-Eleven 500s on the West African coastal schedule to

4705:

1. The crew managed a successful recovery and reset the aircraft's PCUs. Following the aircraft's safe landing at

2152:'s determined opposition to any move by the authorities in the UK and Australia to dilute the lucrative BA-Qantas 1402:

The DC-10's superior operating economics compared with the 707 enabled BCal to operate the aircraft non-stop from

12194: 12189: 11733: 8167: 4732: 3487: 3306:, the sale of Caledonian Leisure Holdings and the disposal of British Caledonian Helicopters the following year. 3243:

planning to fly with BCal in future. As these passengers used to account for a major share of the airline's high-

3185: 2880: 2873: 2809: 2430: 1920: 1161:

Even during this period of severe retrenchment, BCal continued launching scheduled services to new destinations.

980: 926: 442: 4843: 3479: 2865:—Amsterdam regional service to focus its operations on providing worldwide scheduled services from London only. 11836: 11460: 3701:

was awarded the licences for BCal's former London—Scotland trunk routes from Gatwick to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

1138:. BCal also decided to increase its 707 freighter fleet from one to four aircraft and to acquire a five-seater 602:, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) — one of the two predecessors of Investors in Industry, 641:

of all passenger flights. Eventually, the Caledonian tartan uniforms became BCal's standard for female staff.

12068: 12012: 11824: 3596: 3443:

Air Europe had on order. It would also have resulted in adopting the Air Europe short-haul inflight product.

3162:

million passengers. The year's crowning glory was to be the flotation of the British Caledonian Group on the

2013:

licence in return for having granted it permission to launch a fully fledged scheduled service to Hong Kong.

1407: 886:

routes, where the 707's greater range enabled the airline to run non-stop flights between London Gatwick and

453: 10333: 3403:(MMC), ILG decided at the end of July 1987 to launch a counter bid for the entire British Caledonian Group. 3007:

1985 also saw the establishment of British Caledonian Flight Training, a new flight crew training facility.

1950:

The high oil price during that period was a mixed blessing for BCal. It helped the airline fill its premium

1259:

Under the new agreement, BCal had its licences to commence scheduled services from its Gatwick base to both

57: 11549: 5128: 4391: 3381:

The chief protagonists in this takeover battle were BCal's archrival BA as well as ILG/Air Europe and SAS.

1805: 1120: 922: 3932: 3726: 1453:

A 25% contraction of the transatlantic ABC flights market as a result of the initial success of the daily

12509: 12083: 12078: 12073: 11846: 11778: 11743: 11616: 3892: 3868: 3860: 3652: 2849:

and RFG joined the British Caledonian Commuter scheme adding new, regional feeder routes from Gatwick to

1998: 1677:

BCal put in a bid to acquire one of the remaining two "white tail" aircraft. The bid was not successful.

1642: 995: 678: 11806: 11211: 11136: 11102: 11083: 11064: 11043: 11022: 10999: 10981: 10963: 10933: 10910: 10871: 10848: 10813: 10794: 10753: 10725: 10672: 10573: 10518: 10463: 10424: 10405: 10364: 10347: 10259: 10245: 10205: 10155: 10043: 10018: 9983: 9903: 9877: 9854: 9786: 9772: 9735: 9718: 9701: 9666: 9652: 9621: 9605: 9575: 9521: 9476: 9441: 9255: 9224: 9161: 9128: 9102: 9088: 9070: 8999: 8904: 8886: 8868: 8850: 8832: 8814: 8793: 8775: 8757: 8727: 8702: 8684: 8602: 8584: 8566: 8548: 8530: 8512: 8494: 8461: 8443: 8403: 8360: 8344: 8311: 8292: 8236: 8211: 8190: 8151: 8136: 8110: 8096: 8082: 8068: 8052: 8024: 8010: 7984: 7967: 7953: 7939: 7920: 7904: 7890: 7876: 7864: 7847: 7828: 7812: 7755: 7736: 7705: 7676: 7661: 7646: 7627: 7597: 7514: 7500: 7485: 7434: 7406: 7390: 7360: 7345: 7293: 7263: 7245: 7200: 7172: 7157: 7129: 7105: 7089: 7060: 7038: 7019: 6993: 6970: 6956: 6941: 6922: 6901: 6846: 6833: 6805: 6791: 6776: 6747: 6694: 6675: 6656: 6642: 6625: 6611: 6583: 6569: 6555: 6536: 6501: 6483: 6469: 6438: 6424: 6410: 6396: 6382: 6368: 6354: 6335: 6321: 6299: 6234: 6220: 6189: 6157: 6137: 6119: 6104: 6071: 6040: 6026: 6012: 5995: 5951: 5937: 5923: 5893: 5878: 5860: 5831: 5816: 5801: 5786: 5756: 5721: 5705: 5673: 5658: 5643: 5587: 5454: 5426: 5407: 5376: 5360: 5333: 5303: 5244: 5215: 12168: 12063: 12058: 12048: 11783: 11474: 11356: 10744:, Hanlon, P., Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), London and New York, 2007 (3rd ed.), pp. 294, 296 5157:

at the time, BA already had two 747s stationed at Gatwick to operate its Caribbean schedules from there

4617: 4519: 4435: 4351: 3842:

brand at the start of the 1982/83 winter timetable period. BCal's commuter network was modelled on the

2160:". The CAA turned down BCal's application although it considered it superior to a rival application by 1797:

widebodies as suitable long-term replacements for its existing narrow-bodied aircraft on these routes.

1539: 1509: 1021:, which led to the quadrupling of the price of a barrel of oil as a consequence of the decision by the 860: 591: 3471:", who was prepared to pay the same amount of money BA had offered to pay in its original bid, began. 1819:

With their DC-10s grounded, BCal took a short-term lease of a 747 to provide adequate capacity on its

1150:

to BIA. The reason for replacing BCal's One-Eleven 200 jet aircraft on this route with that airline's

12255: 12053: 11946: 4070: 3250:

In addition, the Government announced the withdrawal of BCal's licence to operate the high-frequency

2169:-Australian operation, once Australia no longer opposed licensing additional carriers on that route. 2053:. The new engine overhaul plant was owned and run by Caledonian Airmotive, a dedicated, wholly owned 1272: 1115:

respectively for the duration of the 1975 summer timetable period. Another aircraft was stationed at

949: 532:) and 20 short-haul planes (eight ex-BUA and four ex-Caledonian BAC One-Eleven 500s and eight ex-BUA 397: 52: 47: 12163: 11885: 4697:

who was working in the rear galley and knocked out the powered control units (PCUs) of almost every

3128:

The study also made profit projections for each stage of the envisaged joint venture's development.

2904:

rules. This was to keep the One-Eleven effective until more modern aircraft were delivered in 1988.

1993:

Among the set-backs BCal suffered at that time were the CAA's rejection of its application to serve

961:

In 1973, BCal also inaugurated its fourth scheduled domestic trunk route between London Gatwick and

12529: 11819: 11446:

Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on proposed British Airways takeover of British Caledonian

3730:. The aircraft were repainted in a variation of BA livery with BCal's lion rampant on the aircraft 2132: 1151: 970: 492: 3959: 3698: 12120: 4050: 4038: 4010: 3600: 3468: 3335:

By July 1987, BCal had already exhausted most of the proceeds from the asset disposal programme.

3015: 2982: 2892: 2750: 2414: 2092: 2073: 1894: 1790: 1376: 1341: 1064: 987:, thus becoming the first scheduled carrier to operate between London and the new Paris airport. 941: 930: 803: 756: 667: 533: 524:

BCal inherited from its predecessors 31 jet aircraft: 11 long-haul aircraft (seven ex-Caledonian

519: 6835:

British Caledonian Airways ..., Airliner market, Flight International, 18 September 1976, p. 901

3702: 3559: 3122: 2725:

in which the CAA outlined the findings of its review of existing UK airline competition policy.

1224:

During 1976, BCal's recovery continued, leading to the introduction of a new scheduled route to

991: 937:

aircraft that had been delivered to Caledonian Airways direct from the manufacturer in 1967/68.

233: 12420: 12415: 12129: 12002: 11923: 11700: 11227: 11200: 5067: 4806:

then the largest British independent airline and the UK's leading independent scheduled carrier

4698: 4054: 3919:. All flights on these routes were operated under BCal flight numbers using the BR designator. 3895:

on Gatwick—Liverpool and launch new feeder routes linking BCal's Gatwick base with Humberside,

3876: 3440: 3358: 3269: 2951: 2943:. BA acquired these traffic rights and began serving most of these destinations from Heathrow. 2877: 2569: 2319: 2243: 2185: 2096: 1707:

Both supersonic services were to be launched at the start of the 1980 summer timetable period.

1365: 795: 729: 709: 607: 595: 587: 500: 392:(BA) bought the airline. The Caledonian name was used to rebrand BA's Gatwick-based subsidiary 372: 364: 9307: 5127:

when the Rank Organisation gained full control of Cal Air on 25 May 1988, its name changed to

3751:

The five second-hand 747s BA had inherited from BCal were replaced with its own 747-100/200s.

817:

to 30 September 1971 with a profit of £1.7 million (after accounting for BUA's £600,000 loss)

12133: 12104: 12099: 11964: 11652: 11488: 11461:

Daily Telegraph obituary of Sir Peter Masefield, BCal's former deputy chairman from 1978–1987

11400:

Alan Bristow Helicopter Pioneer: The Autobiography (Chapter 17 – Airline Ego Trip, pp. 253/4)

3951: 3731: 3715: 3163: 3069: 3061: 1971: 1878: 1600: 1567: 913:

scheduled routes to New York and Los Angeles where the established competition was operating

654: 171: 3942:

Other airlines that joined the British Caledonian Commuter scheme at its inception included

3482:

and SAS ensued. Among these sets of talks the one with SAS seemed to be the most promising.

3342:

Therefore, the search for a financially strong partner acquired a renewed sense of urgency.

3244: 2370: — its most profitable destination in that part of the world — and the lucrative " 1747: 1490:

joined BCal's scheduled route network. At the start of the 1978/79 winter timetable period,

12226: 5036: 4670: 3350: 3299: 3286: 3277: 3252: 3215: 2770: 2564:

with several years' experience in private industry and by changing its legal status from a

2537: 2529: 2457: 1877:

and Laker Airways were also permitted without restriction on frequency or fares. Routes to

1623: 1616: 1350: 1253: 1049: 910: 537: 477: 413: 11201:

ASN Aircraft incident description Vickers VC-10-1109 G-ARTA — London Gatwick Airport (LGW)

3931:

before transitioning to DC-10s. Harmer subsequently became the UK's first and only female

3068:

market would also have helped BCal to significantly increase its generally low short-haul

1693: 1146:

further, the airline decided to contract out its scheduled operations between Gatwick and

859:

trademark. This move, which was modelled on the high-frequency-low-fares operation run by

8: 12395: 12221: 12216: 12184: 11811: 11583: 4077: 3947: 3688: 3615: 3463: 3291:

capacity released was redeployed on BCal's well-performing route to Dubai and Hong Kong.

3227: 2946: 2862: 2786: 2733:

The CAA broadly endorsed BCal's proposals by recommending the transfer of BA's routes to

2682: 2433:

that had been acquired from other sources replaced BCal's seven, ageing One-Eleven 200s.

2401:

Laker Airways's demise also enabled BCal to relaunch a daily service between Gatwick and

1890: 1783: 1659: 1317: 829: 626:

all non-scheduled operations. At that time, two-thirds of all passengers were carried on

430: 313: 10783:

Airliner World (Mediterranean Package Tours — Cal Air/Novair International Airways)

8947:

Airliner World (Mediterranean Package Tours — Cal Air/Novair International Airways)

3664:

significant deterioration of its financial position and BA's final bid trumped SAS, the

2496: 2409:

it had occupied at Gatwick. The ex-Laker aircraft that joined BCal's fleet included two

1123:

during the month of July of that year to fulfill a short-term charter contract to carry

990:

To further extend the network's reach and improve its connectivity, BCal agreed to host

852: 12380: 12032: 9423:"British Airways Plc and British Caledonian Group plc; A report on the proposed merger" 9359: 5492:"British Airways Plc and British Caledonian Group plc; A report on the proposed merger" 5109:

BCal had lodged these with the CAA at the time Air Europe had submitted its application

4637: 4549: 4465: 4455: 4381: 4371: 4307: 4297: 4243: 4233: 4172: 4162: 4098: 4021: 3850: 3843: 3532: 3519: 3368: 3196: 3010:

As Gatwick became busier, BCal's senior management called on the Government to ban all

2827:

In 1984, the CAA awarded BCal a licence to commence scheduled services from Gatwick to

2792:

The route transfer was to take place at the start of the 1985 summer timetable period.

2785:

situation at peak times, BCal's senior management considered this difference in annual

2700: 2561: 2546: 2450: 2446: 2362:'s decision to follow suit resulted in the loss of the most profitable parts of BCal's 2205: 1824: 1779: 1654:

1978 was also the year BCal set up a task force headed by Gordon Davidson, BA's former

1068: 954: 914: 807: 799: 760: 663: 368: 4089: 3748:

The One-Elevens were transferred to BA's regional bases in Birmingham and Manchester.

3214:

The first two events almost emptied the cabins of BCal's widebodied planes plying the

3108:

and Athens were to be added. The study also envisaged adding services from Gatwick to

2338: 1731: 1154:

turboprops at the beginning of the 1975 summer timetable period was the high price of

12430: 12027: 12022: 12017: 12007: 11997: 11936: 11403: 11384: 11325: 11306: 11287: 11268: 11249: 10834:

British Airways Plc and British Caledonian Group plc; A report on the proposed merger

8985:

British Airways Plc and British Caledonian Group plc; A report on the proposed merger

4674: 3834:

To further improve its network connectivity and to transform Gatwick into a US style

3800: 2846: 2640: 2615:. BCal also proposed the transfer of BA's short-/medium-haul routes from Heathrow to 2565: 2426: 2200: 2100: 2046: 1840: 1611: 1441: 1423: 1290: 1249: 1112: 1096: 737: 548: 508: 460:

maintenance, training and management expertise to third parties. BCal also owned two

433:(30 November) in 1970, Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways (BUA) from 11757: 11465: 11176: 3558:

To counter these negative sentiments, SAS's proposals also included a plan to offer

3418:

The long-haul operation was to be re-equipped with a brand-new fleet comprising six

2907:

1984 also marked the end of the long-haul, narrow-bodied era for BCal when the last

1908:

This accelerated pace of growth made BCal the fastest growing member airline of the

1426:

could not honour its delivery schedules. This necessitated the temporary lease of a

1181: 994:'s new, twice daily Gatwick—Newcastle flights, which began on 20 April 1974, in its 12475: 11890: 11639: 11500: 11228:

ASN Aircraft incident description BAC One-Eleven 501EX G-AWYS — Corfu Airport (CFU)

4694: 4117: 4045: 4032: 3721: 3170: 3146: 2989: 2901: 2868: 2696: 2140: 2069: 2058: 1970:

price and the fact that the high price of oil had considerably worsened the severe

1740: 1543: 984: 879: 603: 393: 11455: 11417:"Airline History – The BCal STORY: "I wish they all could be Caledonian Girls!"". 6052:

Aviation News — UK and Irish airlines since 1945 (Update 5 British United Airways)

2977:

joined the fleet permitting the resumption of a daily service between Gatwick and

2821: 2805: 766:

BCal also had a Gatwick airside lounge for its premium passengers, which it named

12410: 12344: 12307: 11598: 11512: 11243: 9429: 9367: 9315: 5498: 4842:

including 450 flightdeck and 800 cabin crew, 1,000 maintenance personnel and 700

4795: 4714: 4627: 4607: 4597: 4539: 4529: 4509: 4445: 4361: 4287: 4213: 4142: 3987: 3888: 3786: 3755: 3647: 3572: 3547:. The SAS executives discussed these ideas with BCal's senior management and the 3510:

SAS was prepared to offer £110 million for 26% of the British Caledonian Group's

3451: 3423: 2974: 2955: 2924: 2831:

and authorised the airline to operate dedicated scheduled services to Abu Dhabi,

2525: 2508: 2418: 1928: 1701: 1671: 1563: 1464: 1345: 1333: 1328: 1014: 979:

On 20 March 1974, BCal switched its Gatwick—Paris services to the then brand-new

934: 905: 658: 650: 646: 627: 615: 461: 422: 389: 360: 270: 126: 112: 4743:

too late. The aircraft had passed through a pool of standing water close to its

4109: 4066: 2681:

operation that would allow it to compete with BA and the giant US carriers on a

2405:, to acquire six aircraft from the failed carrier's estate and to move into the 1681: 940:

BCal inaugurated its two transatlantic flagship services from London Gatwick to

418: 11941: 11647: 11518: 4757: 4082: 3992: 3943: 3928: 3920: 3742: 3741:

BA replaced the former BCal short-haul fleet of 13 BAC One-Eleven 500s with 14

3656: 3544: 3450:

to be gained from combining BCal with what was in their opinion "essentially a

3428: 3419: 3408: 3327:

and Nice at a frequency of 13 and three return flights per week, respectively.

3089: 3065: 3011: 2958: 2928: 2660: 2504: 2500: 2259: 2247: 2225: 2173: 2157: 2144: 2065: 2017: 2010: 1975: 1951: 1943: 1874: 1829: 1633:

This service was operating 10 times a day in each direction using a 28-seater

1427: 1384: 1358: 1303: 1143: 1127: 1124: 1072: 1043: 1039: 1018: 901: 894: 887: 814: 791: 671: 638: 446: 356: 279: 10621:, Thomson, A., A., Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1990, pp. 539, 541/2, 545–555 4061: 3264: 3076:. It envisaged the commencement of joint scheduled operations from Gatwick to 2800: 1997:(Philippines) from Hong Kong or Singapore and BA's successful lobbying of the 35: 12503: 12445: 12375: 11974: 11588: 4740: 4334:

In April 1978 BCal's fleet comprised 29 aircraft with two DC-10-30 on order.

3946:

and Guernsey Airlines. The former operated the feeder routes from Gatwick to

3887:

commuter turboprop planes, which were painted in British Caledonian Commuter

3849:

The first airline to join the British Caledonian Commuter scheme in 1982 was

3528: 2978: 2782: 2678: 2422: 2363: 2351: 2343: 2251: 2221: 2193: 2161: 1771: 1736: 1634: 1468: 1454: 1308: 1232:

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

1135: 883: 868: 718: 5968:, Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, pp. 88/9 4735:(registration: G-AWYS) sustained substantial damage as a result of aborting 3085: 1680:

However, BCal eventually arranged for two aircraft to be leased from BA and

483:

The airline's formation followed publication of the Edwards report entitled

12435: 12405: 12390: 12317: 12312: 11895: 11611: 11606: 5132: 4721: 4678: 4666: 4223: 4152: 4026: 3646:

jointly held a 50% stake at that time, effectively represented a back-door

3540: 3536: 3257: 3184:

in retaliation for that country's (at the time) alleged involvement in the

2836: 2762: 2749:

In the event, under pressure from BA's board and to ensure BA's successful

2734: 2600: 2576: 2536:

In addition, this was the time BCal, which had always prided itself on its

2367: 2235: 2213: 2109: 2105: 2088: 1902: 1848: 1403: 1030:

independent competitors generally and of the "Second Force" in particular.

745: 694: 556: 543:

This made BCal the UK's foremost independent airline of the time. Although

529: 469: 452:

Caledonian's acquisition of BUA from B&C did not include the assets of

6723:, Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, p. 201 5546:, Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, p. 130 4833:

It operated two weekly all-cargo flights from there until the early 1980s.

3505: 3226:

secret service agents and did not want to risk exposing themselves to the

3041:

This situation was unsatisfactory for the airline and unrewarding for its

2932: 1832:

was leased during that period as well to cover the shortfall in capacity.

12354: 12339: 11695: 4975: 4702: 4577: 4576:

In March 1986 BCal's mainline fleet comprised 27 jet aircraft with seven

4016: 3835: 3611: 3592: 3548: 3515: 3432: 3042: 3001: 2722: 2685:. The airline's senior management furthermore told the Government that a 2664: 2652: 2402: 2310: 2028: 1760: 1651:

It was used by 60,000 passengers during the first year of its operation.

1638: 1604: 1559: 1555: 1527: 1415: 1241: 1193: 1139: 1116: 1104: 969:(BIA), BUIA's successor, which operated two daily return trips using its 783: 733: 722: 701:. These routes represented only 3% of BOAC's annual, worldwide turnover. 682: 488: 287: 121: 7130:"Bermuda 2 revisions create 12 new US gateways and agreement on Gatwick" 4974:

subsequent re-configuration reduced seating to 24 to increase space for

3846:, the first dedicated commuter operation in the world launched in 1967. 3621:

At the time, SAS used to pursue a high-fares-high-yield strategy in its

2278:

four-times-a-week Gatwick—Hong Kong service via Dubai on 1 August 1980.

1519:

1978 was furthermore the year Adam Thomson held the chairmanship of the

12465: 12334: 12324: 11918: 11716: 11575: 5071: 4897:

in addition to Gatwick—Amsterdam (inherited from BUA) and Gatwick—Paris

4004: 3998: 3980: 3712:

BCal ceased to exist as a legal entity at 00.01 hrs. on 14 April 1988.

3354: 3097: 3057: 2970: 2908: 2842: 2512: 2484: 2466: 2263: 2136: 2054: 1987: 1794: 1752: 1685: 1627: 1572: 1487: 1185:

A British Caledonian Airways Cargo Boeing 707 at London Gatwick Airport

1147: 1035: 962: 918: 872: 833: 821: 705: 599: 560: 525: 133: 12285: 6190:"Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian" 5245:"Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian" 2839:, rather than serving these destinations as intermediate points only. 1340:

Following an exhaustive, three-week evaluation of the Boeing 747, the

12205: 11931: 11675: 11667: 11629: 5136: 4907: 4725: 3924: 3884: 3880: 3872: 3864: 3790: 3724:, BA's wholly owned, Gatwick-based charter subsidiary, was rebranded 3665: 3101: 2854: 2644: 2592: 2580: 2492: 2470: 2383: 2355: 2333: 2295: 2267: 2124: 2080: 2006: 1983: 1870: 1859: 1724: 1580: 1392: 1206: 1108: 1084: 1067:

in addition to continuing in his role as chairman of a reconstituted

973: 864: 845: 825: 611: 576: 564: 11440: 10564:, Vol 42, No 12, p. 44, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, December 2009 10187:, Vol 42, No 12, p. 41, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, December 2009 7800:, Vol 42, No 12, p. 41, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, December 2009 7751: 7749: 6829: 6827: 6384:

Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian

6159:

Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian

5862:

Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian

4747:

during the takeoff run. This caused a temporary reduction of engine

3927:

pilots at the time, joined BCal in March 1984, where she first flew

3109: 2940: 1092: 890:, as well as on the West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana. 806:—Paris Le Bourget service and competed with that airline's Heathrow— 12425: 12329: 12199: 11969: 11900: 11851: 11001:

British commuters grow — British Air Ferries/Guernsey Airlines

4744: 4701:, leaving the aircraft to plummet downwards at a speed approaching 4686: 3963: 3955: 3936: 3908: 3900: 3838:, BCal established a dedicated commuter services network under the 3778: 3535:

that worked on SAS's bid for 26% of the British Caledonian Group's

3320: 3316: 2965:

re-launch, including a door-to-door limousine service at both ends.

2897: 2884: 2858: 2709: 2648: 2628: 2620: 2518: 2488: 2387: 2230: 2217: 2128: 2116: 2064:

BCal's search for a more fuel-efficient replacement for its ageing

2050: 2039: 1967: 1710:

In 1979, the airline took delivery of its delayed third and fourth

1658:

director, to investigate the possibility of operating the Concorde

1655: 1505: 1491: 1209:. The net losses of revenues was about equal for the two airlines. 1198: 1166: 1155: 1131: 1002: 837: 741: 572: 504: 8399: 8397: 2266:. The UK government allowed Cathay Pacific and Laker to appeal to 2057:

of the airline, which had been set up with technical support from

1063:

organisational changes that saw Adam Thomson become the airline's

12385: 11829: 11657: 11322:

No Frills – The Truth behind the Low-cost Revolution in the Skies

10288:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 100, 103 8152:"B.CAL clears £5 million profit and seeks One-Eleven replacement" 7746: 6824: 6276:

No Frills — The Truth behind the Low-cost Revolution in the Skies

5035:

that report had considered 4 billion long-haul scheduled service

4736: 4122: 3916: 3912: 3896: 3867:

in February 1981, in June of that year, it acquired an 18-seater

3830:

Short 360-100 operating for British Caledonian Commuter Service

3770: 3635: 3622: 3447: 3231: 3219: 3077: 2936: 2850: 2774: 2754: 2636: 2612: 2596: 2288: 2153: 2120: 2084: 2077: 2002: 1979: 1955: 1939: 1898: 1866: 1820: 1813: 1588: 1551: 1483: 1312: 1264: 1260: 1225: 1214: 1080: 841: 686: 544: 283: 20: 8293:"Nott overturns CAA ruling and sanctions Hong Kong free-for-all" 8053:"Trade Secretary rejects UK—European low-fare routes appeal ..." 7312:, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 88, 101 5100:

at the time, BCal held just under one-fifth of all Gatwick slots

4938:

designating two UK flag carriers as well as two US flag carriers

3806: 3256:

helicopter shuttle service as a result of the completion of the

3000:

Two more, second-hand DC-10-30s were acquired to replace BCal's

2668:

would still have accounted for 70% of total scheduled capacity.

2034:

At the start of the 1981/82 winter timetable period, BCal added

1158:, which had made BCal's own jet aircraft operations uneconomic. 11880: 11801: 9130:

B.CAL clears £5 million profit and seeks One-Eleven replacement

8394: 6455: 5091:

resulting in a £32 million loss prior to being taken over by BA

4753: 4748: 4492:

In March 1984 BCal's mainline fleet comprised 25 jet aircraft.

3827: 3735: 3643: 3639: 3630: 3626: 3604: 3117: 3113: 3081: 2994: 2920: 2828: 2766: 2758: 2686: 2673: 2656: 2624: 2616: 2588: 2584: 2461: 2445:

In 1983, BCal became the first non-French airline to order the

2406: 2379: 2375: 2327: 2299: 2208:

and to reach the minimum size envisaged in the Edwards report.

2189: 2149: 2035: 2016:

BCal ended the 1979/80 financial year with a healthy profit of

1994: 1596: 1592: 1501: 1388: 1380: 1218: 1026: 634: 580: 568: 553: 10704:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 111/2 10381:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 102/3 10099:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 89/90 9950:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 86–89 8181:, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 59–60 5048:

increasing the number of weekly round-trips from seven to nine

4121:

A British Caledonian Airways BAC 111 at Aberdeen Airport in a

3364:

BCal's basic dilemma at the time can be summed up as follows:

1974:

in Britain at that time significantly increased the company's

1823:

trunk routes during that period. BCal also operated a Dan-Air

904:

subsidiaries during the early 1970s. These included a pair of

875:, boosted passenger numbers and profitability on both routes. 10522:, World News, Flight International, 27 December 1973, p. 1051 4864: 4690: 4682: 3904: 3782: 3774: 3766: 3524: 3511: 3491: 3303: 3223: 3207: 2632: 2608: 2604: 2184:

As a result of the network structure BCal had inherited from

2166: 1963: 1959: 1924: 1801: 1720: 1547: 1496: 1396: 1165:

joined the airline's network on 1 November 1974, followed by

1162: 1100: 1088: 1025:(OPEC) to boycott the West in retaliation for its support of 882:

and more fuel-efficient Boeing 707s replaced VC10s on BCal's

836:

regional scheduled service to live up to its claim of being "

787: 779: 778:

BCal commenced scheduled operations from Gatwick to Nigeria (

713: 698: 690: 465: 11421:. Cudham, UK: Kelsey Publishing Group: 40–45. November 2011. 11365:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1978/9

11353:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1977/8

10770:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, pp. 128 8028:, World News, Flight International, 3 November 1979, p. 1464 7894:, World News, Flight International, 23 December 1971, p. 994 7722:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1978/9

7571:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1977/8

7559:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1978/9

7542:

British Airports Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1978/9

6224:, World News, Flight International, 29 November 1973, p. 886 5403: 5401: 3655:(EEC) at that time and therefore were not bound by moves to 2291:

requested the CAA to transfer these licences to themselves.

1311:

section. This was the first time since the beginning of the

1103:, indefinitely suspending scheduled services on the Glasgow— 851:

1972 was also the year BCal introduced the UK's first-ever "

10716:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 113 10497:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 104 10324:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 100 10143:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 103 8232: 8230: 8228: 8226: 7905:"B.CAL drops Concorde plans but asks for Hong Kong licence" 6660:, World News, Flight International, 7 February 1974, p. 158 3393: 3105: 3093: 3048:

Therefore, under pressure from its controlling shareholder

3004:, which left the fleet when the additional DC-10s arrived. 2832: 2359: 1716: 1576: 1336:

being prepared for an engine run prior to delivery to BCal.

1202: 1022: 11424: 10577:, World News, Flight International, 19 December 1987, p. 2 9974:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 90 9962:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 87 9923:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 83 9648: 9646: 9215:, Simons, G.A., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1999, p. 82 8014:, World News, Flight International, 28 April 1979, p. 1287 7662:"Gatwick moves: Air Canada reluctant, reprieve for Iberia" 6602:, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, p. 88 6041:

Air Commerce ..., Flight International, 3 May 1962, p. 705

5516:, Editorial, Flight International, 29 October 1970, p. 655 3494:

link between any of their airlines and a foreign carrier.

2857:. Connectair also assumed the operation of BCal's Gatwick— 2091:

that was due to enter service in 1983, in addition to the

1931:(BA) which already had such rights for Dubai and Bahrain. 438: 19:

For the airline that currently uses the IATA code BR, see

11347:(3). St. Leonards on Sea, UK: HPC Publishing. March 2004. 10768: