British Caledonian

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British Caledonian

IATA ICAO Call sign BR BCC CALEDONIAN
Founded	30 November 1970 (1970-11-30) (amalgamation)
Ceased operations	14 April 1988 (1988-04-14) (merged into British Airways)
Hubs	Gatwick Airport
Subsidiaries	British Caledonian Aircraft Trading (1974–1987) British Caledonian Airways Charter (1982–1985) British Caledonian Flight Training (1985–1987) British Caledonian Helicopters (1979–1987) British Caledonian Travel Holdings (1982–1985) Cal Air International (50%) (1985–1987) Caledonian Airmotive (1981–1986) Caledonian Airways (Charter) (1970–1982) Caledonian Airways (Leasing) (1970–1974) Caledonian Equipment Holdings (1970–1974) Caledonian Far East Airways (1985–1987) Caledonian Hotel Holdings (1985–1986) Caledonian Hotel Management (1970–1984) Caledonian Leisure Holdings (1985–1986)
Parent company	Caledonian Airways Ltd (1970–1981) Caledonian Aviation Group plc (1982–1985) British Caledonian Group plc (1986–1987)
Headquarters	Gatwick Airport (1970–1980) Caledonian House, Lowfield Heath, Crawley, West Sussex, England, UK (1981–1987)
Key people	Sir Adam Thomson John de la Haye Sir Peter Masefield Alastair Pugh Capt. P.A. MacKenzie David Coltman Ian Ritchie Trevor Boud Leonard N. Bebchick Frank A. Hope Dennis H. Walter

British Caledonian (BCal) was a private independent airline in the United Kingdom that operated from 1970 until it merged with British Airways in 1988. It operated primarily from London Gatwick Airport in south-east England. BCal was formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways^{[nb 1]} and British United Airways (BUA).^{[nb 2]} It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlines and was described as the "Second Force" in the 1969 Edwards report. The carrier slogan was Let's go British Caledonian in the 1970s and We never forget you have a choice in the 1980s. The BUA takeover enabled Caledonian to realise its long-held ambition to transform itself into a scheduled airline. The merged entity eventually became the UK's foremost independent, international scheduled airline.

A series of major financial setbacks during the mid-1980s combined with the airline's inability to grow sufficiently to reach a viable size put it at serious risk of collapse. British Caledonian began looking for a merger partner to improve its competitive position. In December 1987, British Airways (BA) bought the airline. The Caledonian name was used to rebrand BA's Gatwick-based subsidiary British Airtours as Caledonian Airways.
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