|
(詳細はBritish Caledonian (BCal) came into being in November 1970 when the Scottish charter airline Caledonian Airways, at the time Britain's second-largest, wholly privately owned, independent〔independent from government-owned corporations〕 airline, took over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest British independent airline as well as the United Kingdom's leading independent scheduled carrier.〔''Caledonian/BUA'', Editorial, Flight International, 29 October 1970, p. 655〕〔"Second Force at last", ''Flight International'', 29 October 1970, p. 659〕 The combining of the two companies met government policy for the establishment of a "Second Force" to counterbalance the near-monopoly of the government-owned corporations, which provided 90% of all UK scheduled air transport capacity at the beginning of the decade and to expand the British share of global aviation.〔("BCAL Atlantic growth" ), ''Flight International'', 20 September 1973, p. 466〕 This entailed expanding the inherited scheduled network to provide effective competition to established rivals on a number of key routes, as well as augmenting the acquired fleet with the latest generation narrow-, widebody and supersonic transport airliners to maintain a competitive edge.〔("Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian" ), '' Flight International'', 3 August 1972, p. 156〕〔("Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian" ), ''Flight International'', 3 August 1972, p. 159〕 The rapid expansion of British Caledonian suffered a temporary setback during the recession following in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. This undermined its financial stability during its formative years and threatened its survival at that stage. Following economic revival during that decade's second half, British Caledonian regained its financial stability, enabling it to expand again and to become profitable. ==Inception== On St. Andrew's Day (30 November) in 1970, Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways (BUA) from British and Commonwealth (B&C) for £6.9 million.〔〔 Caledonian Airways also purchased three new BAC One-Eleven 500 aircraft, which B&C had leased to BUA, for a further £5 million.〔〔 Caledonian's acquisition of BUA from B&C did not include the assets of British United Island Airways (BUIA), BUA's regional affiliate.〔〔("Independence for BUIA" ), ''Flight International, 30 July 1970, p. 151〕 BCal was a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonian Airways Ltd.〔the new name of Airways Interests (Thomson)〕〔("Staff signed up" ), ''Flight International'', 1 April 1971, p. 444〕 BCal itself had a number of subsidiaries as well. Amongst these were Caledonian Airways Equipment Holdings and Caledonian Airways (Leasing), which were set up to acquire and dispose of aircraft on behalf of the airline as well as to sell maintenance, training and management expertise to third parties.〔("BCAL changes course" ), ''Flight International'', 31 October 1974, p. 588〕 BCal also owned two package holiday companies〔Blue Sky Holidays and Golden Lion Tours〕 as well as several hotels in Spain and Sierra Leone. BCal also inherited BUA's minority stakes in Gambia Airways,〔 Sierra Leone Airways〔〔("World Airline Survey" ), ''Flight International'', 11 April 1968, p. 517〕 and Uganda Aviation Services. The airline's formation followed publication of the Edwards report entitled ''British Air Transport in the Seventies'' in 1969.〔〔("The Edwards Report — Principal recommendations" ), ''Flight International'', 8 May 1969, p. 745〕 and a subsequent White paper from the government〔("Government sets the course" ), ''Flight International'', 20 November 1969, p. 760〕 The report recommended the creation of a "Second Force", private sector carrier to take on the state-owned corporations — British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) — by providing competing domestic and international scheduled services on trunk routes.〔〔〔 The government rejected the proposed transfer of routes from BOAC and BEA to the Second Force, and held that dual designation on a route should be open to any British independent.〔("Government sets the course" ), ''Flight International'', 20 November 1969, p. 759〕 The new airline established its headquarters and operational base at Gatwick Airport and Sir Adam Thomson, one of the five co-founders as well as one of the main shareholders of Caledonian Airways, became its chairman and managing director.〔 BCal was a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) at its inception as a result of inheriting BUA's membership. This included membership of IATA's trade association as well as participation in tariff co-ordination with other member airlines in the organisation's annual traffic conferences. BCal also had its own air freight terminal at Heathrow〔It operated two weekly all-cargo flights from there until the early 1980s.〕〔 BCal inherited from its predecessors 31 jet aircraft: 11 long-haul aircraft (seven ex-Caledonian Boeing 707s and four ex-BUA Vickers VC10) and 20 short-haul planes (eight ex-BUA and four ex-Caledonian BAC One-Eleven 500s and eight ex-BUA BAC One-Eleven 200s). The issued share capital was £12 million — more than that of any other wholly private, British independent airline at the time — and its workforce numbered 4,400.〔including 450 flightdeck and 800 cabin crew, 1,000 maintenance personnel and 700 ramp workers〕〔〔〔''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, p. 130〕 This made BCal the UK's foremost independent airline of the time. Although Dan-Air and Britannia Airways exceeded BCal's total annual passenger numbers from 1975, BCal maintained its position as Britain's leading independent international scheduled airline, in terms of both the number of scheduled passengers carried each year and the total yearly scheduled capacity measured in passenger kilometres,〔the distance covered by its scheduled operation multiplied by the number of scheduled passengers carried within a 12-month period〕 throughout its 17-year existence.) The newly created company's output measured in available capacity tonne kilometres〔a figure arrived at by multiplying the number of () tonnes available for the carriage of revenue load (passengers, cargo and mail) on each flight sector by the sector's distance in kilometres〕 was greater than that of some of the smaller, contemporary European flag carriers, such as Aer Lingus, Air India,〔''Gatwick Airport: The first 50 years'', Woodley, C., The History Press, Stroud, 2014, p. 103〕 Sabena, or Swissair. By that measure, BCal was about the same size as Australia's flag carrier Qantas.〔〔〔 The institutional investors that had helped Sir Adam Thomson and John de la Haye launch Caledonian Airways back in 1961〔''The Caledonian punchbag'', Flight International, 21 March 1987, p. 33〕 were also among the shareholders of the newly constituted airline. They included The Automobile Association (AA), Great Universal Stores (GUS), Hogarth Shipping,〔("£30m value put on Caledonian" ). ''Flight International'', 26 May 1979, p. 1714〕 Lyle Shipping,〔 Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) — one of the two predecessors of Investors in Industry,〔3i's former name〕 Kleinwort Benson, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Schroders.〔("British Airways Plc and British Caledonian Group plc; A report on the proposed merger" ), Chapter 4, Competition Commission website〕〔"Second Force at last'', ''Flight International'', 29 October 1970, p. 660〕 (Airways Interests (Thomson), which had been set up at Caledonian's inception a decade earlier as an investment vehicle for that airline's founders to enable them to maintain control, was renamed Caledonian Airways Ltd and became the new group holding company.)〔〔Thomson, A. (1990), pp. 94, 258〕〔("GUS Share in Caledonian" ) ''Flight International'', 9 November 1967, p. 749〕 Before adopting the British Caledonian name, the new airline legally constituted two separate entities — Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd and British United Airways Ltd. These traded together under the interim name Caledonian// For accounting purposes, BCal's aircraft were respectively allocated to a "BUA Division" and "Caledonian Division" during the interim period. The former was responsible for all IATA activities. This encompassed all scheduled services. The latter was responsible for all non-IATA work. This included all non-scheduled operations.〔〔 At that time, two-thirds of all passengers were carried on charter flights.〔accounting for 60% of revenues〕〔〔 During that period, former BUA air hostesses still wearing that airline's blue uniforms were working alongside their tartan-clad, former Caledonian counterparts in the cabins of all passenger flights. Eventually, the Caledonian tartan uniforms became BCal's standard for female staff. Following the interim period, Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd and British United Airways Ltd were merged into British Caledonian Airways Ltd (BCal).〔 All former BUA aircraft were repainted adopting Caledonian's livery featuring a prominent Scottish Lion Rampant on its aircraft's fins. At that time, all aircraft were named after famous Scots and well-known Scottish places. This tradition was continued throughout the airline's 17-year existence. Some BCal aircraft were also allocated out-of-sequence registrations. (For instance, G-BCAL was allocated to one of the Boeing 707s, G-CLAN〔(Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain G-CLAN (photo) )〕 and G-SCOT〔("B.CAL opens feeder link" ), ''Flight International'', 21 January 1978, p. 165〕 were the registrations of the Piper Navajo Chieftains, G-DCIO was the registration of the eighth DC-10 and G-HUGE was the Boeing 747 Combi registration〔("BCal Saudi routes approved" ), ''Flight International'', 9 March 1985, p. 7〕) The "Second Force" inherited BUA's extensive network of scheduled routes serving the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa and South America.〔("BCAL Atlantic growth" ) ''Flight International'', 20 September 1973, p. 467〕 Its scheduled ambitions were aided by the British Government transferring to it BOAC's West African trunk routes to Nigeria and Ghana as well as the corporation's North African route to Libya.〔〔("Rest of the Package" ) ''Flight International'', 1 April 1971, p. 440〕 These routes represented only 3% of BOAC's annual, worldwide turnover.〔("Green light for second force" ) ''Flight International'' 6 August 1970, p. 186〕〔("Second force under way — The second-force statement" ) ''Flight International'', 13 August 1970, p. 228〕〔(''Second force under way'', Flight International, 13 August 1970, p. 227 )〕〔(''Airline Profile: Number Forty-Two in the Series — British Caledonian'' ), ''Flight International'', 3 August 1972, p. 160〕 The Government also agreed to let it serve Casablanca in Morocco from Gatwick in competition with BEA's service from Heathrow.〔("Caledonian/BUA" ) ''Flight International'', 12 August 1971, p. 245〕〔("British Airways loses Casablanca ..." ) '' Flight International'', 28 February 1974, p. 257〕 Furthermore, the Government agreed to license BCal to operate non-stop scheduled services between London and Paris and to begin negotiations with the French authorities to secure reciprocal approval for BCal to be able to commence scheduled operations on what was then the busiest international air route in Europe.〔〔 BCal moreover received Government assurances that it would be designated as the UK's sole flag carrier on all routes transferred to it and that it would be assisted in obtaining traffic rights for additional, selected scheduled routes where it wished to compete with the corporations, including the lucrative London—New York and London—Los Angeles routes.〔〔 Another important concession by the Government designed to improve the competitiveness of the "Second Force" was to permit it to provide a first class cabin on its East African routes.〔〔(''Caledonian/BUA'', Flight International, 17 June 1971, p. 883 )〕 (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, Sir Freddie Laker, 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 fuselage of that airline's long-haul VC10s, 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.)〔〔(''Britain Goes It Alone'', Flight International, 15 April 1960, p. 543 )〕〔(''The New Pattern Takes Shape'', Flight International, 27 May 1960, p. 741 )〕〔''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', Eglin, R. and Ritchie, B., Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980, pp. 88/9〕 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 international trunk routes.〔〔(''CAA's guidance given'', Flight International, 9 March 1972, p. 346 )〕〔(''Undue preference or national benefit?'', Flight International, 27 April 1972, p. 579 )〕 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.〔〔 The Central London air terminal at Victoria Station in London's West End, which the "Second Force" inherited from BUA as well, allowed passengers to complete all check-in formalities, including dropping off their hold luggage, before boarding their train to the airport.〔(''Air Terminal for Victoria'', Flight International, 29 June 1961, p. 907 )〕〔(Air Commerce ..., Flight International, 3 May 1962, p. 705 )〕〔''Aviation News — UK and Irish airlines since 1945 (Update 5 British United Airways)''〕〔 BCal also had a Gatwick airside lounge for its premium passengers, which it named ''Clansmen Lounge''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Caledonian in the 1970s」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|